Montini loses in 3A semis
NORMAL - Somewhere during the bus ride from Lombard to Redbird Arena, the Montini girls basketball team lost its shooting touch.
The Broncos shot miserably and paid the price, allowing a very winnable game to slip through its grasp in losing to Freeport 41-35 in the Class 3A semifinals Friday afternoon.
The final stats made Montini coach Jason Nichols wince. His club made only 12 of 58 shots for a .207 percentage.
"Overall, we just didn't shoot the ball well," Nichols said. "I thought we had a ton of open looks."
Freeport (30-4) played a man defense and paid particular attention to Montini all-state 6-foot-3 sophomore center Michala Johnson. That left the perimeter open at times, but the Broncos (27-6) missed their first 15 3-pointers before finishing 2 of 19 from long range.
"Nothing really dropped," Montini senior guard Cootie Leeberg said. "It was hard to watch."
None of Montini's key players were immune. Johnson led the Broncos with 17 points, but the normally 66 percent shooter went 4 of 17.
"Our defensive philosophy is to force difficult shots, and I think that's what we did," Pretzels coach Ryan Pierce said. "Johnson had two or three where she got clean and ended up laying the ball in. The rest were all with people in her face."
"We have had teams double Michala before, but we usually hit our shots when that happens," Leeberg said. "But (today) nothing dropped so their defense worked out well for them."
Ironically, Montini hit its first shot on a lay-in by Johnson, and a Leeberg scoring drive put the Broncos up 4-0.
But then Montini's accuracy took a sharp turn for the worse. They wound up missing 18 of their first 21 attempts from the floor.
Meanwhile, Freeport had its own troubles shooting and hanging on to the ball. The teams were tied at 15 at the half.
As Montini's struggles continued, the Pretzels eventually pulled out to a 32-24 lead after Suporia Dickens' three-point play with 3:32 remaining.
The Broncos pulled within 35-32 on Johnson's 2 free throws with 1:04 left, but Freeport finally hit enough free throws to wrap up the game.
The Pretzels went 13 of 31 from the foul line.
"I guess that's why they say defense wins championships and not free throws," Pierce said.
Dickens' 15 points paced Freeport, which will meet Marshall (25-7), a 76-73 overtime winner over Quincy Notre Dame (32-1), in today's 12:45 p.m. title game.
Montini will play for third at 11 a.m. today.
"We'll hopefully bounce back against Quincy Notre Dame, but the kids had a nice run," Nichols said. "It stings a little. You beat a Hope and you think you're going to get a crack at Marshall. It wasn't meant to be."