Burlington Central 70, Oswego 65
Oswego had a deep roster stocked with big, well-chiseled bodies.
Burlington Central had Mike McCurdy.
No contest.
The Burlington senior dropped a career-high 41 points on the Panthers, leading the Rockets to a 70-65 win in the title game of the Class 3A Sycamore regional.
The regional chamiponship is the seventh in Central history and fourth in six seaons.
The Rockets will play Sterling, a 65-53 winner against Rock Falls, at the Freeport sectional on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Central broke open a 1-point game with an 11-0 second-quarter run, then held off a late Oswego charge led by Andrew Galow.
For the second straight game, free throws were key for the Rockets. They made their first 16 -- all by McCurdy and Jason Wagner -- and finished 26 of 32 on the night.
McCurdy missed 4 of his first 5 shots, but once he got hot he didn't miss much else. He finished 12 of 22 from the field and 15 of 16 from the free-throw line.
"In warmups I was missing everything," he said. "I wasn't shooting well. Then I came out and missed the first 2 or 3 shots. But once I started making my 'threes' that helped a lot. It gave me confidence to keep shooting."
"In a big game like this, that's what you expect from your best player," said Central coach Chris Payne. "We talked about, he's got to have a big game for us to continue to move on, and he did tonight."
Wagner finished with 11 points and Jake McNutt added 14 for Central (22-6). Shane Larkin contributed 6 rebounds and several hustle plays.
Burlington led by as many as 15 in the third quarter, but Galow almost single-handedly brought the Panthers back. He scored 18 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, helping Oswego get as close as 5, but he couldn't get the Panthers over the hump. His meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer accounted for the final margin.
Trailing 60-53 with less than 3 minutes left, the Panthers started sending the Rockets to the free-throw line. After missing a pair of 1-and-1 opportunities, the Rockets recovered, making 10 of their last 14, including the last 6 in a row.
Nursing a 1-point lead in the second quarter, the Rockets scored the next 11 points. McCurdy scored 8 of those and a McNutt 3-pointer accounted for the other 3.
The Panthers never again got closer than the final margin.