Walther Lutheran too much for Montini

Montini brought the heart. Unfortunately for the Broncos, Walther Lutheran brought everything else.

Too tall, too long and too quick for a Montini team that's lost three key players, Walther Lutheran beat Montini 75-46 in a nonconference game Tuesday in Lombard.

Walther Lutheran sent 6-foot-7 Brandon Stanciel and 6-5 Brian Jackson against Montini starting forwards 6-0 Kevin Dobry and 5-11 Kevin Dailey, yet also had the quickness to force 8 early turnovers for an 18-3 lead after a quarter.

That proved to be insurmountable, though Zach Brash came off the Broncos bench with 7 of his 12 points in the second quarter. Montini got to the foul line, making 8 of 10 second-quarter free throws to get within 35-19 at halftime.

"My halftime speech was simply that if we played them in two half-court sets - we just play our offensive half-court and they play their defensive half-court - I think we would have matched up just fine," said Montini coach Brian Opoka. He lacked injured starting point guard Jordan Werner, forward Sean Keeley and guard David Kelly.

Transition game or in the half-court, sharing the ball was Walther Lutheran coach Bob Koehne's concern. Against the zone defense Montini played all game, it worked.

"We wanted to get the ball inside and continue to move the ball," Koehne said. "We really wanted to score off the pass, not individuals creating shots for themselves, but really use their teammates. I thought overall they did a pretty good job. I think we had 24, 25 assists as a team. That's a pretty good total."

Baskets by Dailey, Brash, Anthony Blashewski and then a Mike Kulczycki 3-pointer pulled Montini within 41-31 at 5:02 of the third.

Walther (17-8) answered with a 17-3 run - it included Stanciel's two-handed, rim-hanging dunk from Brandon Smith's alley-oop pass - for a 58-34 lead after three quarters.

In a game that also saw the varsity debut of talented Montini freshman Tyshawn Johnson, Blashewski led the Broncos with 14 points followed by Brash with 12 and Kulczycki with 11. Jackson and 3-point ace Brandon Sims led Walther Lutheran with 14 apiece, Smith netting 12.

"We knew they were going to be bigger, stronger and faster than us," Brash said. "But like we've said before no one beats us in heart and that's all we could give today."

Walther Lutheran 75, Montini 46

Walther Lutheran - Davis 2 0-0 4, James 1 3-4 5, Smith 6 0-0 12, Jackson 7 0-0 14, Stanciel 3 0-0 6, Sims 4 2-2 14, Swanigan 2 0-0 4, Vasser 2 2-2 7, Lamar 0 0-0 0, Koehne 0 0-0 0, Dunbar 3 0-0 7, Lee 0 0-0 0, Thompson 1 0-0 2, Elliot 0 0-0 0. Totals 31 7-8 75.

Montini - Blashewski 5 4-6 14, Nash 0 0-0 0, Kulczycki 4 2-4 11, Dailey 1 0-0 2, Dobry 1 0-0 2, Brash 4 4-6 12, Grzywack 1 2-2 4, Latelle 0 0-0 0, Drennan 0 0-0 0, Suffield 0 0-0 0, Brar 0 1-2 1, Harrington 0 0-0 0, Nash 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 13-20 46.

Walther Lutheran 18 17 23 17 -75

Montini 3 16 15 12 -46

3-point baskets: WL: Sims 4, Dunbar, Vasser. M: Kulczycki. Fouled out: None.