St. Francis 60, Montini 53

Something had to give.

After playing more than 31 minutes with the biggest lead by either team being 4 points, St. Francis' boys basketball team finally pulled away from stubborn Montini in the closing seconds to secure a 60-53 Suburban Catholic Conference victory Friday night in Wheaton.

Senior forward Brian McMahon, who poured in a game-high 21 points, made 4 consecutive free throws over the final 38 seconds of play to seal the Spartans' second SCC win in four days.

St. Francis is 4-1, 2-0 in SCC play.

"We grinded it out until the end," said McMahon, who also pulled down 12 rebounds to go with 4 assists and 4 steals. "Our shots weren't dropping as much as usual, but we stuck together and we pulled it out tonight."

With the Broncos (2-4, 0-1) clinging to a 45-42 lead early in the fourth quarter, the Spartans enjoyed a 7-0 surge, taking the lead for good at 47-45 on a putback by Bob Vonderhaar with 5:41 remaining. Vonderhaar finished with 18 points.

"That was the one thing we talked about at halftime -- we had no offensive rebounds," said Spartans coach Shawn Healy. "I just challenged the kids and told them that I thought it was going to be a difference maker (in the second half)."

After making a steal under his own basket, McMahon drove the length of the court to help set up Vonderhaar's layup that increased the Spartans' lead to 49-45.

"I was definitely looking for him a lot," McMahon said of Vonderhaar, who scored 8 fourth-quarter points.

"Brian is an unselfish player who makes everybody better," Healy said. "He had 21 points, he probably led us in rebounds and very well (could have) led us in assists. When you have that type of player on your team, it's going to make everybody better."

Dan McCoy, who canned a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter, added 10 points for the Spartans.

"I felt like for 80 to 85 percent of the game, we played really good defense," said Montini coach Tom Sloan. "But we lost (McCoy) and he hit a couple big shots in the first quarter."

Alex Blashewski scored 20 points and Anthony Blashewski added 13 for the Broncos, who led 16-13 after one quarter and 43-42 heading into the final period before coming up short.

"I think it was their seniors, especially in the fourth quarter, that made the biggest difference," Sloan said.