Girls basketball: Nikki Kerstein MVP as Montini holds off St. Charles East for championship

LOMBARD – Montini junior Lily Spanos knows the pros and cons of being a coach’s daughter.

Both can be magnified when you’re playing at your mom’s alma mater.

But Spanos, a 5-foot-7 guard, is relishing every moment of her second year on varsity under her mom, Shannon, who was a star guard at Montini in the late 1990s.

“I actually love it,” Lily Spanos said of the family dynamic. “I know some people don’t, but I love it.

“It’s definitely such a special thing. I just feel like I almost carry on her legacy and I’m so proud to play on her team and let her coach me.”

Shannon Spanos was a three-sport star at Montini when she played under her maiden name, Herold, which is a prominent athletic family at the Lombard school.

How much does Lily Spanos know about her mother’s career?

“I hear about it a little bit, bits and pieces,” Lily Spanos said.

Lily Spanos gets playing time only in bits and pieces. Some games, she plays less than a minute. Other times, she gets a bit more.

But one thing is becoming clear: When Spanos does get off the bench, good things tend to happen.

That’s what happened Dec. 29. Spanos saw spot duty in each half, only enough time to attempt three shots.

But she made her last two, which turned out to be the biggest of the game. The back-to-back 3-pointers at the end of the third quarter put the Broncos ahead to stay in a 54-46 win over St. Charles East in the Montini Christmas Tournament championship game.

“Lily works hard in practice every day,” Shannon Spanos said. “She deserves minutes.

“A lot of these girls deserve minutes. They work hard and they help us get better as a team, so to have Lily have an opportunity like that, she was ready and those were two big 3s that swung the game.

“It was great.”

Things didn’t look so great in the early going as the Saints (12-5) raced out to an 11-4 lead. Carmen Aguilera sank two 3-pointers and Corinne Reed had another.

But by the third quarter, the game had turned into an entertaining seesaw battle that featured 15 lead changes in a span of 10 minutes bridging halftime.

Super-sub Addie Schilb’s driving layup gave the Saints a 36-35 edge before Lily Spanos took a crosscourt pass from star guard Nikki Kerstein and buried the go-ahead 3-pointer.

On the next possession, Spanos did it again. This time it was Montini’s other star Victoria Matulevicius who passed her the ball and the 3-pointer gave the Broncos (12-4) a 41-36 cushion heading into the fourth quarter.

More work needed to be done, but the stone-cold swishes swung the momentum in Montini’s favor.

“I would say my best strength is shooting,” Spanos said. “I come off the bench and I know my role is to play good defense and to shoot when I’m open and execute when plays are called for me.”

Her execution was perfect.

“The first shot, I got it and I knew I was just going to shoot it,” Spanos said. “I swished it and I was like, ‘Let’s go.’

“Then we went back and ran another offensive play. There was about 15, 20 seconds left and [the coaches] called out our play. So we ran the play and I got the ball and I put it in.”

Kerstein, the tournament MVP, finished with 21 points, five rebounds and two assists. Matulevicius had 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. The fact that they didn’t hesitate to pass to Spanos speaks volumes about how much they trust her.

“It’s amazing how she’s always able to come in the game and make an impact, which is super important for us,” Kerstein said. “We know when she’s in the game, she’s a great shooter, so I think it’s super important for us to get her the ball when she does get in.

“When the game was on the line, she made two big 3s and that was big for us. It extended our lead and definitely got us going.”

Even so, the Saints battled back. Reed, who finished with a team-high 15 points and game-high 10 rebounds, made two free throws to start a 9-2 run that Lexi DiOrio capped with a 3-pointer to close the gap to 47-46 with 2:09 remaining.

But Matulevicius split a pair of foul shots at the 1:03 mark and Kerstein sank four straight free throws in the final 37 seconds as Montini closed it out.

“The third quarter we just came out flat on defense,” St. Charles East coach Katie Claussner said. “They outscored us 19-13. We just can’t let that happen.

“What’s crazy is even having that third-quarter lapse on defense, we were still in it the last 30 seconds. We had some unforced turnovers.”

It was the Saints’ second loss to Montini in four days by almost identical scores.

“We are right there,” Claussner said. “We’re battling every day to get over that last hump and start winning these close games and beating these really good teams. We’re on a long road and I know this team is going to be very successful.”