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Second straight setback for Montini

Losses don't happen very often to the Montini girls basketball program.

Consecutive losses never occur, even against strong competition.

The Broncos certainly had their chances to pull out Tuesday's third-place game of the sixth annual Montini Christmas Tournament, but instead the defending Class 3A state champions suffered the sting of a 60-55 overtime loss to Marian Catholic.

Coupled with Monday's 58-42 semifinal loss to Benet, it's the first time Montini (13-3) has lost back-to-back games since 2004. Marian Catholic (12-2) was third in Class 4A last year after winning the 2012 4A state title.

"We can't go into every game thinking, 'Oh, we're defending state champs. We can beat anybody we play,' " Montini senior Rainey Kuykendall said. "Every team is after us so we have to come into the game thinking that way. We don't sometimes and that's why we have three losses."

Kuykendall scored a team-high 18 points off the bench and was 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. Her free throws with 1:19 left in regulation gave Montini its last lead at 53-52.

Penn State-bound senior point guard Teniya Page's free throw tied the game for Marian Catholic, and Gabrielle Cooper stole the ball back with 44 seconds. After a near-Montini steal was ruled a foul with 3.1 seconds, Cooper missed a running jumper at the buzzer from the top of the key.

In overtime, Page scored inside and Jerell Matthews nailed the team's 10th three of the game for a 58-53 advantage. Montini missed all six of its shots and a one-and-bonus free throw in the extra session.

"We just lost to a really good team that almost beat Trinity (losing 46-42 Monday). It's just we have to learn how to win and some of that is at the end of the game and some of that is during the course of the game," Montini coach Jason Nichols said.

"The film never lies. They may think coach does, but the film won't. We're going to watch a ton of it as soon as we get back from our break."

Montini trailed by as many as 6 points in the second quarter but pulled in front 33-28 with an 11-0 run that included conventional 3-point plays by Tiara Wallace and Kuykendall. The Spartans responded with three consecutive baskets to lead 34-33 at the half.

Down 45-43 entering the fourth quarter, Montini scored three straight baskets on a putback by Lindsey Jarosinski and drives by Emily Cochrane and Wallace to lead 49-45 with 4:40 to play.

The Broncos then committed back-to-back turnovers while Cooper hit consecutive threes to put the Spartans back in front.

"We had a couple of moments in the game where we could have pulled away. It wasn't just that one situation," Kuykendall said. "We just didn't play defense. That was the main thing. We didn't rebound. We didn't keep anybody in front of us. (But) our offense was there."

Wallace added 11 points and she and Kelsey Bogdan, the lone senior starter, each had 5 rebounds. Kuykendall provided 4 offensive rebounds after the team had just one at halftime.

Marian Catholic opened in a zone defense but quickly switched to man. As the game progressed, the Broncos improved at attacking the basket.

"We got to the basket. We just have to learn how to finish and go up with contact and we have to look for the open players when it's presented to us," Wallace said.

A fourth-year starter, Page had 27 points (18 at halftime) against the Broncos' aggressive 2-3 zone on 8-for-13 shooting with three 3s and five steals. Most of the other damage came from Matthews (16 points) and Cooper (11 points), who both added three 3s.

"We have some young kids," Nichols said. "We don't know how to close games. The other thing is we have opportunities during the course of the game where we lack the sense of urgency. They don't think it means much and it comes back to bite us in the butt."

There was some good news for the Broncos. Sophomore starter Kaylee Bambule hasn't played since injuring her knee in the opening seconds of Saturday's quarterfinals, but the MRI revealed no tear and only a deep bruise. Nichols said she probably will be out another two weeks.

After the game, the Broncos were confronting another kind of pain.

"To be honest, all three losses are terrible. They hurt regardless if it was yesterday or if it's going to happen next week," Kuykendall said. "It doesn't matter. A loss is a loss. We wanted to win, see if we could bounce back from yesterday and it just didn't happen."

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