Girls Basketball: St Joseph takes down Hinsdale South for Montini title

Updated: December 30, 2011 11:12PM

St Joseph is no longer the darkhorse.

“I read in the paper that we were the darkhorse in this tournament,” St. Joseph’s Donna Koerber said Friday after accepting her MVP plaque at the Montini Christmas Tournament. “I wanted to prove we could run with Montini and Marian Catholic, even though we lost to Marian.”

Koerber had 11 points, six rebounds and three assists and Briya Wilborn scored 14 points, including six free throws in the final 34.2 seconds, as No. 25 St. Joseph defeated Hinsdale South 60-55 Friday to win the championship of the Montini tournament and end the host’s two-year reign.

St. Joseph (13-3) used a 20-10 second quarter outburst to extend a 10-8 lead after one quarter. Koerber’s end-to-end layup gave the Chargers a 23-12 lead with 5:14 remaining in the first half, and the 5-foot-11 senior scored again with 1:55 left to push the lead to 27-14.

Sophomore Chanel Brown (12 points) buried a 16-footer with 10 seconds left as St. Joseph took a 30-18 lead into the locker room at intermission.

“We were just running our plays, spreading the ball around and making sure we got our cutters and running our offense,” Koerber said. “That’s what did it. We used time running through our offense and getting good shots.”

Trailing 37-22 early in the third quarter and 46-35 with 6:40 remaining in the game, Hinsdale South pulled within 46-41 on back-to-back three-point plays by Toni Romiti. Romiti scored on an inbounds to cut the lead to 54-51 with 46 seconds left, but then Wilborn took over.

Wilborn, who sat out the second quarter with foul trouble, made six-of-six free throws including a pair with 4.6 seconds remaining to thwart the Hornets’ comeback.

“We just had to stay calm and take our time with everything,” Wilborn said. “We had to make sure to knock down our free throws and play good defense. We didn’t panic and throw the ball away like most teams would in that situation.

“At that point, you just want to stay calm, make sure your team is calm around you, and stay calm,” she added. “That’s alI I can say…stay calm.”

Romiti and Andrea McNally each had 13 points for Hinsdale South (10-4).

“I would say the entire first half hurt us,” HInsdale South coach Jen Belmonte said. “We got into foul trouble and we had that whole jersey mix-up that didn’t bode well for us. They weren’t focused. They didn’t come out the way we needed to.

“This whole tournament we’ve been playing good defense and tonight we didn’t play good defense,” the coach added. “We had to go to something we’re not used to defensively at the end to spark them. That’s not our forte. We fouled too much and weren’t in the groove in the beginning.”

Earlier, Jasmine Harris scored 19 points to lead Bogan (10-7) to a 67-57 victory over Westinghouse, and Oak Park (5-12) won the consolation title with a 75-65 victory over Guerin Catholic (Ind.).

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