Burlington Central repeats Plano championship

Burlington Central coach Brett Porto cut the final strings of the net before draping it over the Plano Christmas Classic championship trophy.

The image, perhaps, could be considered a bit of a precursor to the type of finish at season's end Burlington Central aspires to reach in the elusive sectional final and beyond.

Step one, though, was employing a swarming defensive presence and riding the familiar team identity en route to a 58-41 win over Marmion.

The Rockets repeated as tournament champions in Plano. Burlington Central became just the third four-time champion in the 59-year history of the event.

Belmont recruit and tournament MVP Drew Scharnowski led the way with 26 points and six rebounds.

"It's just what we do," Scharnowski said. "Year after year, we have young guys who come paying it forward. We have seniors who just want it all the time. We're going in, we're making each other better in practice every single day and it's paying off."

The Rockets (11-3) defeated familiar tournament nemesis Peoria Notre Dame in the semifinal, and soon played spoiler to Marmion's bid to become tournament champion for the first time since the program went back-to-back in 1974 and 1975, the last time the Cadets played in the Classic.

Scharnowski was the lone major piece of the Rockets to play in last year's exciting overtime final versus the Irish. He got to enjoy a solid repeat performance, but the Rockets were also sparked by Nic Gouriotis' six rebounds and nine points in the first quarter to build a 20-4 lead.

The margin was 24-14 at halftime.

"Absolute dog," Scharnowski said of his senior teammate. "Just going in there, no regard, just going in there to get the board and scoring. I love that. Same with my other teammates: Matthew Lemon, Caden West, Nolan Milas, all those guys. Just going in there and just getting those boards."

"We wanted to be the more physical team and I thought we did that earlier on, especially on the boards," Porto said. "We rebounded the ball really well on both ends, and that set us easy looks and got our confidence going. I thought we did a really good job with their guards."

The Rockets eventually pulled away in the mid third quarter in part by a 9-0 run sparked by Scharnowski and Lemon hitting 3s.

"We've come a long way in a short time," Porto said. "We've had to change things personnel-wise and we've had to change things schematically. They've all hit it in-stride. Hopefully, we can build off this and have a good last couple months in the season and use this as a jumping point."

Gouriotis finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Jake Johnson had seven points, Lemon had six points, while West had four points and five rebounds.

Marmion (11-4) was again without standout guard Jabe Haith with a sprained ankle suffered earlier in the week. The Cadets were able to find shooting magic in their semifinal win over Kaneland on Thursday, but struggled to recapture it at a consistent clip. Collin Wainscott, who scored 26 points on Thursday, was limited to 10 points, while Trevon Roots had 12 points.

"[Rebounding] is what we talked about beforehand: They are really aggressive rebounding and give them all the credit in the world. They execute their game plan," Marmion coach Joe Piekarz said. "They're a very good team and if you don't do exactly what you need to do to stay with them, they can do that to you."

Wainscott and Roots made the all-tournament team for the Cadets in their first Classic in 47 years.

"This whole tournament is a great experience for Marmion basketball," Piekarz said. "Our sophomores won the whole thing and we came in second. We learned a lot of good things. We got a lot of great lessons. This tournament is a great tournament. We are very disappointed we did not come out on top, but we did a lot of really good things this tournament."

In the third place game, Peoria Notre Dame rode 27 points from standout forward Cooper Koch to s 55-48 victory over Kaneland. The Knights (13-3) were paced by Gevon Grant's 17 points, while Troyer Carlson had 15 points. Freddy Hassan had eight points.