Turk's 28 lead Burlington Central to regional win
Burlington Central packed in the defense, limiting 6-foot Sycamore sophomore Monita Johnson to just 2 points, and the Rockets got a career-high 28 points from senior Molly Turk to advance to Thursday's Class 3A Kaneland regional title game with a 57-39 win over Sycamore Tuesday night.
They will take on top-seeded Hampshire (23-4) for the third time this season in the title game. BC hasn't won a regional since 1990.
"The girls executed the game plan as well as I could have asked," said BC coach Wade Maisto. "We did everything we wanted to do."
In addition to shutting off Sycamore's inside game, Central was able to get the ball into the hands of its hot shooter, Turk, as often as it liked. She took advantage of shorter Sycamore defenders and scored 18 of her points in the first half as the Rockets took a 25-19 lead at the break.
"The mismatches were all Mr. Maisto," said Turk, whose 9 of 13 shooting night led the Rockets to a 19 of 34 night from the field. "We worked on it in practice. Sometimes people have good shooting games. But it wasn't just shooting. Everyone played well in all aspects of the game tonight. My shot was feeling good but a lot of it was my teammates being so unselfish."
The Rockets outscored Sycamore 14-8 in the third quarter to open up a 39-27 lead entering the final 8 minutes and Turk essentially put the final dagger in the Spartans by hitting a 3-pointer with 6:10 left in the game that made it 44-28. She also had 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
"Molly did what I wanted her to do tonight," Maisto said. "She took it to their guards."
Juniors Taylor Colby and Jordan Maisto added 13 and 9 points respectively for BC, which lost to Sycamore by 24 points at Thanksgiving, sans Turk and Maisto, who were both injured at the time.
"Last time we didn't have Molly and Jordan and those two make us a little different team," Wade Maisto said.
BC now gets another crack at conference champion Hampshire in an all-Big Northern East title game. The Whips beat the Rockets 47-31 and 51-40 this season.
"We know what we have to take care of on Thursday," Wade Maisto said. "Hopefully the third time will be the charm."