BC can't find shot or crown

When one team is draining its 3-point attempts in rapid succession while the other can't connect from beyond the arc, a lead can widen quicker than a Thanksgiving weekend waistline.

Burlington Central reached the finals of the Leland G. Strombom Boys Basketball Holiday Tournament at Sycamore by striking regularly from long distance in its first two games of the season.

However, in the first half of Saturday's final against the host Spartans, the Rockets misfired on all 12 attempts from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Sycamore shot 7 of 10 from 3-point range in the first two quarters to take a 13-point lead at the half.

That lead would eventually balloon to 25 points midway through the third quarter before Sycamore settled for a 77-64 victory in the title game, marking the Spartans' first victory in their own tournament since 2004.

"It seemed like they weren't missing shots and we were missing a few," said Central senior guard Mike McCurdy, who led all scorers with 28 points. "They seem like a team that goes on spurts. They'll miss a few, then hit a bunch and just pull away."

That's precisely what happened in the second quarter when Sycamore broke open a close game. The Rockets had pulled within 21-20 after a McCurdy bucket in transition, then Sycamore senior Josh Howells buried his fourth 3-pointer of the game to establish a 4- point lead.

After a missed 3-pointer by Central's Jake McNutt, Mike Buckner splashed another 3-pointer to give Sycamore a 27-20 advantage.

Dan Berg kept the deficit manageable with 2 free throws, but Sycamore guard Kortney Hunter sank a pull-up jumper in the lane and Buckner bulged the lead to 10 points with a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer to extend the lead to 32-22.

"We didn't shoot the ball as well as we had the first two nights," Burlington Central coach Chris Payne said. "We're a team that relies on that and we didn't get it in the first half."

McCurdy, who was named to the all-tournament team along with Jason Wagner, scored 13 points in the first half despite Sycamore coach Jeff Hillmer's switch to a box-and-one.

"He's a great penetrator and he handles it well," said Hillmer, Sycamore's first-year coach, of McCurdy. "He's not very big, but he gets angles. We knew going in we were going to try to shade to him, then he started off like gangbusters, so we had to go box and one."