Miller's last-second shot sends St. Francis past Burlington Central

St. Francis' Sebastian Miller has been making plays for the Spartans for a long time, but the 6-foot-3 senior guard never made one bigger than this.

It appeared St. Francis would hold for a late shot with the score tied against Burlington Central, but Miller drove hard into the lane, pulled up and hit a 9-footer with 14 seconds remaining.

The Rockets had two more shots to tie or win, but did not convert on either and saw their best season in school history come to an end, 37-35, at the Class 3A Crystal Lake South sectional championship Friday night.

The last time there was postseason basketball, in 2020, St. Francis also eliminated Burlington Central by scoring the final seven points in a 60-59 regional championship game.

"It was a war, a defensive battle," Spartans coach Erin Dwyer said. "Both teams played with a lot of passion, we just made one more play. Honestly, we made one more shot than they did. The result on both sides was amazing."

Burlington coach Brett Porto echoed that sentiment as the Rockets fell short of becoming the first sectional champions in school history.

"(Miller) just made a nice move, got down in the middle of the lane and hit a pullup, simple as that," said Porto, whose team finished 31-4. "They just made one more play than us tonight."

St. Francis (27-8) moves on to Monday's 7 p.m. Ottawa supersectional against Metamora, a 68-64 winner over Rock Island in the Bradley University sectional on Friday. It will be the Spartans' first supersectional appearance since 2013.

Burlington's Gavin Sarvis tied the score on a driving basket with 42 seconds remaining, 35-35. Sarvis missed the and-one free throw after his basket, Miller rebounded and the Spartans called timeout.

Miller scored all of St. Francis' nine points in the fourth quarter.

"We were just trying to get the best shot available," Miller said. "We knew they were switching. I had a lot of energy and had some foul trouble coming into the fourth quarter and knew I just needed to make big plays down the stretch. I had a lot of energy being on the bench that long."

Miller drove right around Sarvis and pulled up without committing a charge to make the shot.

"We were hoping for one shot," Dwyer said. "I literally turned around and all of a sudden I see him flying in for a layup and I'm like, 'OK, I guess that worked too.'"

Burlington called timeout with 11 seconds to go and inbounded the ball to Sarvis, its best scorer.

"I get the ball, coach said 'It's in your hands, do what you want with it,'" Sarvis said. "I got into the lane and didn't know what to do so I kicked it out."

Drew Scharnowski had an open look at a 3 from the top of the key, but missed. St. Francis called timeout again and inbounded the ball deep, which the Rockets' Carson Seyller intercepted and passed to Sarvis just past half-court. His last-second 3 was not close.

The defensive struggles were evident in the score and the statistics. St. Francis committed 20 turnovers; Burlington shot 33.3% (12 of 36) from the field. The Spartans also had a huge rebounding advantage, 31-13.

"They sagged off of us a lot and made us shoot and we didn't shoot well tonight," Sarvis said.

Miller led all players with 13 points. Sean Killian and Adam Wiborg each added eight for the Spartans. Sarvis topped the Rockets with 11 points, Seyller tossed in eight.

Burlington trailed 34-31 with 1:10 remaining, but scored on an inbound alley-oop lob to Sarvis to make it 34-33. After one Miller free throw in the other end, Sarvis dashed downcourt for the layup to tie.

"They were big and strong and physical and push you off spots all over the place," Porto said. "It's kind of what we thought they would be. Credit to our guys for battling back. Gavin pulled up and kicked it out and we had a chance to win it."