Minooka star Madelyn Kiper is no stranger to the Montini Christmas Classic.

The 6-foot-1 senior guard has been a regular at the prestigious tournament, though she had never had the chance to showcase her skills.

That changed on Monday when the Indians made their Montini debut.

“We found out earlier in the year that we were coming here,” Kiper said. “I’ve always come and watched this tournament, so I was super excited to actually get to play in it this year.”

Kiper put on a show in the final opening-round game. The Kent State recruit scored a game-high 27 points and added a career-high 15 rebounds, two steals and two blocks to lift Minooka to a 49-29 victory over Montini.

Minooka (12-1) will play Marist in the tournament quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“She’s the best player I’ve seen so far this season,” Minooka coach John Placher said of Kiper. “She can play inside, she can play outside.

“She’s got a great range. She’s already got the college 3-ball down, which is hard to guard at the high school level, so it’s fun to coach her.”

The 6-foot-1 Kiper was fun to watch against the Broncos (3-8), who won the Class 3A state championship last season. She tallied all nine of her team’s points in the first quarter to give the Indians a 9-7 lead.

By halftime, Kiper had 13 points and 11 rebounds. The rebounding was especially key in helping the Indians hold the Broncos (3-8) scoreless in the second quarter until Nathalia Richardson scored with 2.1 seconds left to stop a 16-0 run.

“We knew going into the game (Montini) was a little smaller and younger, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ve got to go out there and show them who’s up and try to rebound as best as I could,’” Kiper said. “Rebounding is something that I’ve been working on for a while, so really just tried to pick it up tonight.”

Kiper also helped pick up the slack as the Indians played without their second-best player, junior guard Naya Carter, who sprained her ankle on Saturday.

“(Carter) brings a more fluid offense,” Placher said. “We were struggling all night and that was the big reason, but defensively, when you hold teams down to what we did, that’s good man-to-man defense.”

That defense held the Broncos to 4 for 25 shooting in the first half. Kiper shot 8 of 15, including four 3-pointers, and went 7 for 8 from the line.

“I thought it was a good showing,” Kiper said. “I definitely had to pick it up with Naya being out, but I thought I did a good job shooting and holding the team together.”

Senior forward Jaelle Hamilton and senior guard Chloe Juskiewicz each scored eight points for Minooka. Senior point guard Kendall Thomas did not score but had six assists and five rebounds.

Richardson, who had a team-high nine rebounds, and Mia Quaranta scored seven points each to lead Montini, which also got six points apiece from Cedona Barrett and Kaelyn Zumdahl.

“The first quarter we were right there,” Montini coach Shannon Spanos said. “The defense was doing very well. We knew what they were going to bring, and we were locked in.

“Second quarter we started missing some easy buckets and I think the negativity started getting contagious, so I talked to the girls about flushing it and having that next-play mentality and moving on. You can tell we’re young and inexperienced and playing in games like this can only help.”