Burlington Central holds off South Elgin
South Elgin spent nearly four quarters trying to catch Burlington Central on Friday at Sycamore's Strombom boys basketball tournament.
And when the Storm finally did catch up, they had no answer for Zach Schutta.
The Rockets' junior shooting guard scored 9 of his game-high 28 points in the fourth quarter, including a bucket that put Burlington Central ahead to stay on its way to a 66-60 win.
The Rockets (3-0) will play for their second straight tournament championship at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Sandwich.
"We knew we had to win to get in the championship game and we wanted to go back-to-back," said Schutta, whose 11 field goals came on a variety of post-ups, long jumpers and strong drives to the rim. "Not many teams have repeated the Sycamore tournament so we want to get this done."
Burlington Central's fastbreak was at its best in a 21-point first quarter. Michael Kalusa (11 points) scored on a lay-in four seconds after the opening tip, and the Rockets didn't slow the pace much from there.
South Elgin (1-2) fell behind 24-12 when Schutta opened the second quarter with a 3, then started chipping away by going inside to 6-foot-5 Chris Hankins. His 3-point play on a putback just before the halftime buzzer brought the Storm within 36-33.
Burlington Central, who doesn't have a starter over 6-2 and starts four guards, lost the rebounding battle 33-18.
"The players distributed the ball to him," South Elgin coach Brett Johnson said. "It was nice to see us be unselfish as a team and give him opportunities to score. He was not afraid to take it to the basket."
Collin Uveges made 2 free throws to tie the game at 51, and he assisted Hankins for a basket for a 53-53 tie with 3 minutes left. The Rockets scored the next 6 points, capped by Schutta's steal and layup, for a 59-53 lead.
A Hankins bucket got the Storm within 60-57, and Logan Atkins swished a 3 that made it 62-60 at :26. After each of those big shots, Burlington Central point guard Ta Vontae Harris calmly made a pair of free throws to keep the Rockets up by 2 possessions.
"It wasn't pretty," said Burlington Central coach Brett Porto, who also got 18 points on a series of aggressive drives by Joe Ratzek. "For the first time in our first three games we weren't as sound as I want to be rebounding. And we got a little silly and loose with the ball in the second half. But we gutted it out."
Hankins (21 points), Atkins (13) and Uveges (11) all hit double figures for the Storm, who also lost to Rochelle by 1 point after rallying from 17 down.
"That has been the way we've played the first couple games," Johnson said. "We've been down and we've continued to fight back. It's hard to get over the hump. They made one more play every time when we got close."