Girls Basketball: Taris Thornton, Montini close out Sycamore in sectional final

HAMPSHIRE – Sycamore got the first comeback, but the Montini girls basketball team got the final one, knocking off the Spartans 61-55 after trailing in the fourth quarter of the Class 3A Hampshire Sectional championship game Thursday.

"I'm so happy for us," said junior forward Taris Thornton, who scored a team-high 15 off the bench for the Broncos. "We did so good."

Montini (31-4) advances to the Grayslake Central in the Class 3A Elgin Community College Super-Sectional at 7 p.m. Monday.

Sycamore led 47-46 when Kylie Feuerbach hit a pair of free throws for the Spartans with 4:56 left. But Montini's Tatiana Thomas scored on a putback in a game full of domination on the offensive boards for the Broncos, then she added a bucket with 3:35 left.

Taylor Charles added a layup to cap a 6-0 run, and the Spartans never got within two again.

"Our 3-point shooting was horrendous until later in the game until we hit some big ones," Montini coach Jason Nichols said. "We play a schedule that we've been in this situation so many times. We know how to win in these close games against good teams. I thought that helped us a little bit."

The Broncos were 4-of-24 from long range but made up for it with a 48-32 edge on the boards, including 26-4 on the offensive glass. The Broncos also forced 23 turnovers, leading to 17 points.

"They do what Montini does. They pressure the heck out of you and make you make difficult passes," Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said. "It's one of those things where we had a couple turnovers when it was close and the tide was starting to change that stand out."

The Broncos scored the first seven points and led 15-3 late in the first quarter. But the Spartans scored the last five of the period, including a 3-pointer by Feuerbach.

Montini opened the second with a layup by Charles, but it was its only field goal of the quarter. Sycamore went on a glacial 6-0 run over a 5:09 stretch of the second, ended when Sophie Sullivan hit a free throw.

Montini grew the lead to 19-15, but after Ella Shipley hit a pair of free throws, Faith Klemm hit a wide-open 3-pointer as the defense collapsed in on Feuerbach, who kicked it out to Klemm.

She drained the shot, giving Sycamore its first lead of the game at 20-19 with 51.4 seconds left in the first half – a lead the teams kept trading back and forth. There were nine lead changes and three ties in the second half.

"It was so frustrating because we were working so hard," Thornton said. "But we got back into the game, kept our momentum and didn't get let down."

The Sycamore surge in the first half coincided with 6-foot-3 freshman Carrier entering the game. She got the start at the beginning of the second half.

"When the freshman was in, the 6-3 kid, we had a hard time with that unless Taris was in there with her speed," Nichols said. "So what we started doing was playing our post player in the high post to create some space for the dribble drive and some looks."

Feuerbach's 23 points, eight rebounds and five steals were all game highs. Carrier and Faith Feuerbach had eight points each for the Spartans. Thornton led the Broncos with 15, Sullivan had 12 and Thomas added 10. Charles had 13 points and eight rebounds to go with three steals, while Sullivan also had eight boards and three steals.