Girls Basketball: Nikia Edom, Montini cruise in pool play

Updated: December 28, 2011 11:00PM

Montini will learn more about itself the next two days. Guerin Catholic (Ind.) learned a lot just by playing Montini.

The final game of pool play at the Montini Christmas Tournament was over early as the hosts sprinted to a 40-11 halftime lead and coasted to a 74-24 victory over Guerin Catholic, a small private school north of Indianapolis that is making its first visit to the Lombard tournament.

Nikia Edom scored 11 points, Nia Flowers added 10, Tianna Brown had nine points and six rebounds and Angela Talley had seven points for No. 11 Montini (15-3), which won Pool A and plays Pool B runner-up St. Joseph Thursday at 7:45 p.m.

“We knew going in that we were a little bit better than (Guerin),” Montini coach Jason Nichols said. “We’re still doing little things that a lot of people might not see or understand what we’re looking for as coaches. We have to do them better.

“Off the ball we don’t rotate into position quick enough,” the coach added. “We still hold the ball and massage it a little instead of finding the extra man. There were some good things. There were some things we should be good against a team that we’re better than.”

Montini will close the tournament Friday against Marian Catholic, which beat St. Joseph 63-41 earlier Wednesday.

“We’ll get tested tomorrow against St. Joseph and Friday against Marian Catholic and we’ll find to where we’re really at,” Nichols said. “We’ll see what we learned over the last three days of not playing well.”

Guerin (10-3) played without three injured seniors including 6-2 center Colleen Frost, who is nursing a knee injury. The Golden Eagles got six points apiece from freshman Cailey Cotter and sophomore Carly Osinski.

“This is great for us,” Guerin coach Scott Miller said. “We’re a brand-new program so we’ve been playing varsity basketball for five years, so coming up here and playing this level of competition is great for our kids. We got six freshmen and sophomores getting a lot of playing time, so this is outstanding for us.”

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