Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010
12:45 PM
By Patrick Z. McGavin
YourSeason.com
Whitney Holloway looked at the scoreboard to start the fourth quarter and knew something had to give.
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"We knew somebody was going to get a run, and we wanted to make sure it was us that got the run and not them," the Montini senior guard said.
Holloway scored 17 points and registered three steals, two assists and two rebounds to lead the No. 3 Broncos past No. 5 Geneva 55-44 in the championship game of the Vikings Thanksgiving tournament Saturday afternoon.
The game was tied at 34 entering the final quarter. Holloway scored five of her total in the fourth quarter. "We picked up our defense a lot and really got after them," said Holloway, named the tournament most valuable player.
The defending Class 3A state champions ended the Vikings 57-game regular season winning streak. "We knew about the streak," Holloway said. "Geneva's a big time program, and it's always nice to be the one that ended a streak like that."
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Holloway and senior forward Whitney Adams (16 points, eight rebounds) helped the Broncos break the game open. Junior center Tianna Brown added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Broncos (4-0). Senior guard Kiki Wilson contributed nine points.
Adams scored on two put backs and Brown scored inside off a beautiful Adams assist in the team's game-changing 12-2 run. After hitting two free throws, Adams delivered the dagger with a three-pointer from the right baseline for the 46-36 lead.
"I was open and our coach Jason Nichols says to be aggressive and look to score in that situation," Holloway said.
Geneva star senior guard Kat Yelle led the Vikings (3-1) with 15 points. The Vikings trailed by as many as eight in the first half. Down 28-22 at the break, Geneva scored the first eight points of the third quarter. Geneva seized its only lead on a Sammy Scofield lay up off a Montini turnover.
After the three ties of the third quarter, Montini limited Geneva to just 3-14 from the field in the decisive fourth quarter. Junior Ashley Santos added 10 points for the Vikings.
"I thought our big three big Holloway, Adams, Wilson played very well," Nichols said. And Tianna Brown did a lot of nice things on the inside block.
"Geneva's a very athletic team, with excellent guards and the game was sloppy at times, but when you play good competition this early, it's good to get the victory."