Montini rises to latest challenge, remains unbeaten

Montini guard Kiki Wilson can't wait to get to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee next season and team up with Nicolet's Ashley Green.

“I'm looking forward to it,” Wilson said Saturday night. “She's a good player, and both of us together on the court, they won't be able to stop us.”

Wilson will have bragging rights on her future teammate after Montini took a 65-58 victory against the visitors from Wisconsin. It was yet another attempt by the top-ranked Broncos (21-0) to find someone to challenge them.

“We started off kind of so-so,” Wilson said. “We weren't ready for it, but we're used to playing good competition. We just weren't ready to come play today. But we came out with a win; that's good. But we've got to come out 100 percent ready to play every time.”

“They're solid. They're one of the better teams we've faced, no doubt about it,” added Broncos coach Jason Nichols, whose team has beaten many of the best Illinois has to offer.

Nicolet led by as many as 5 points in the first quarter before finishing the period even at 13 on junior Tianna Brown's three-point play for Montini.

“We wanted to play Montini because we know they're a good team and they were going to make us better,” Nicolet coach Corey Wolf said. “... Montini is so good, they're going to make you pay. You will know the things you need to work on when you're done playing them.”

Senior Whitney Adams opened the second quarter with a basket, and the Broncos kept the lead the rest of the game. The lead hit double digits for the first time when Whitney Holloway's bucket made the score 27-17, though the Knights scored the final 6 points of the half.

“We got that 10-point lead and then we had a couple of sophomore post players just come in and give up a couple of offensive rebounds,” Nichols said. “That's unacceptable, and they got back in the game.”

A 7-point fourth-quarter run gave the Broncos their biggest lead of the night, 52-36 with 4:42 to play.

“The thing with Montini is they can score in bunches. It's a blink of an eye and it's like, 6-8 points like that,” Wolf said. “That's kind of what hit us.”

“Adams hit some 3s, Kiki hit some 3s, Holloway was able to penetrate and kick it out,” Nichols added.

But the Broncos let Nicolet (10-2) get a little too close at the end for Nichols' comfort.

“I'm not very happy because I don't think we closed the game the way we should have,” Nichols said. “I thought we were careless managing the game at the end. I'm happy with the win, because they're a really good team, there's no doubt about it.”

Green, a 6-foot guard, led all scorers with 21 points and also grabbed 7 rebounds. Northwestern-bound 6-5 center Alex Cohen scored 16 points for Nicolet and also had 7 rebounds.

Adams scored 18 points for Montini, and Wilson had 16 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Holloway added 11 points and 4 steals, and Brown scored 10.