Girls Basketball: De La Salle no match for Montini

Updated: February 21, 2012 8:14PM

Defending Class 3A state champion Montini rolled in its sectional semifinal game Tuesday night, beating De La Salle 68-32 to advance to the sectional final at Glenbard South.

Montini is playing with a load of confidence and its showed Tuesday night in its Class 3A Glenbard South Sectional semifinal.

Nikia Edom scored 10 of her 12 points in the first quarter as the defending state champions scored the game’s first nine points in a 68-32 victory over De La Salle.

The No. 8-ranked and top-seeded Broncos (29-5) opened leads of 13-3 and 18-5 in the first quarter, which ended 24-7 for Montini. De La Salle (15-10) shot only 3-of-10 from the floor in the first half and made only one basket in the third quarter.

“It was all good,” Edom said. “We came out ready to go with a lot of energy.”

Nia Flowers led Montini with 15 points off the bench and made three three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Javonna Smith (six rebounds) scored 10 of her game-high 16 points in the first half for the Meteors.

“They are a great team. We could play them 100 times and maybe beat them once,” Meteors coach Jenna Markoff said. “The girls played hard They fought to the end. We had eight seniors and they made the program proud.”

Kelly Crowley scored De La Salle’s only third-quarter basket on a three-pointer. Montini outscored the Meteors 18-5 in the quarter.

“We always have a target on our back,” Edom said. “We played really hard tonight. We’ll continue our momentum into the next game.”

The Broncos will play No. 23 and second-seeded St. Joseph (21-10) or third-seeded Glenbard South (17-10) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the sectional final.

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