Girls basketball: Nikki Kerstein’s masterful performance leads Montini past Benet into tournament final

LOMBARD – First, Nikki Kerstein beat Montini.

Then she joined them.

Kerstein helped Deerfield reach the Class 3A state semifinals for the first time last season, eliminating Montini along the way. But she saw something special in the way the Broncos played in defeat.

“We played Montini in supersectionals and beat them to go downstate,” Kerstein said. “Seeing how their team played, I already knew that it would be a great fit.

“I saw how Coach (Shannon) Spanos coached and I just loved everything about the team, so I came and shadowed and everybody was amazing. I knew this team was going to be great.”

Kerstein has made the Broncos even greater since she transferred to Montini. The 5-foot-8 junior is an elite point guard who has quickly taken the helm of leadership.

“She’s our captain,” Spanos said. “She’s our leader on the floor and we tell her that all the time.

“She’s just a smart player. She has such a high basketball IQ, not only to go with her skill, but she’s just an all-around great player.”

Kerstein showed it on Thursday with a masterful performance. She scored 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting, led all players with six rebounds and five assists and also had two steals to lead the host Broncos to a 59-52 victory over Benet in the Montini Christmas Tournament semifinals.

Montini (11-4) will play St. Charles East (12-4), which beat York 53-39, in the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

This is Kerstein’s first time playing in the Montini tournament but she’s well aware of its prestige.

“It means a lot to us,” Kerstein said. “Obviously, it’s on our home court and we want to be able to defend the stable.

“It’s been a good tradition here for years now and it’s always had a good reputation with really great teams, so we know that every year there’s going to be amazing teams here and it will be competitive. We know we have to bring our ‘A’ game every single time and it makes us play even harder.”

Kerstein helped the Broncos ace a stiff test against the defending Class 4A state runner-up Redwings (9-5), who led 8-7 after Emilia Sularski sank a 3-pointer midway through the first quarter.

Kerstein responded with a 3-pointer of her own to give the Broncos the lead for good. She followed with an offensive rebound that led to a Shea Carver free throw and later drained another trey.

It was all part of a 12-0 run to close the first quarter.

“Our coach pulled us aside right before that and she told us we needed to win the next three minutes and every time she says that, we know that it’s going to be the most important three minutes,” Kerstein said. “Right then, we knew we couldn’t let them get anything, and then we would have some momentum going into the next quarter.

“We wanted to be the people that were in charge and to have the momentum. We had that momentum with us and it kind of stuck with us for the next couple minutes and we were able to ride it out.”

Kerstein scored four straight points on a runner in the lane and a putback to give Montini its largest lead, 25-11, at the 4:36 mark of the second quarter. The Redwings were reeling at that point, ending the first half with four starters on the bench in foul trouble.

“Foul trouble changed things for us, there’s no question,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. “I think we’re tired and we’re a step slow.

“They were getting a lot of 50-50 balls. We were getting beat on some back doors and some curls and things like that, things we normally guard better. We were a step slow today on some of that stuff.”

Benet did make eight 3-pointers to climb back in it. Maggie Sularski finished with 13 points and Emma Briggs added nine of her 11 points in the second half, including an inside hoop to cut the deficit to 41-38 with 2:08 left in the third quarter.

But once again, Kerstein hit back, assisting on back-to-back baskets by Carver and Victoria Matulevicius and scoring on a layup during a 13-0 run. Matulevicius tallied 14 of her game-high 19 points after intermission, while Carver chipped in 12 points.

“We were just picking each other up the whole game and I knew when we needed a big bucket or if we needed a stop, I was getting on everyone,” Kerstein said. “I was just trying to do everything for my team to keep our lead and it extend it all the way to the end.”

Spanos has come to expect that from Kerstein.

“She executed really well tonight, set people up in good situations,” Spanos said. “She not only scored but dished and rebounded and played defense. She did it all tonight.”