The Montini boys basketball team trailed Burlington Central by only 4 points at halftime in Aurora despite 13 first-half turnovers.

“Talk about blessings,” Montini coach Daryl Thomas said.

But the Class 3A Marmion regional game unraveled for the Broncos when Burlington Central scored the first 10 points of the third quarter to pave the way for a 63-47 victory.

“That (run to start the second half) devastated us,” Thomas said. “We never recovered from it. Once again, the turnovers (to start the third). (The turnovers) killed us.”

The Rockets (26-3), the top seed among the Marmion and Sycamore regionals, will face either Glenbard South or St. Francis on Friday night.

The Broncos, seeded No. 7, had their season close at 11-16.

Zach Schutta and Joey Ratzek were the engineers for the latest Burlington Central victory by leading a balanced offensive attack with 14 and 13 points, respectively.

“We expect that out of Zach,” Burlington Central coach Brett Porto said. “This is his last varsity season.”

“You always hear coaches say, “The first three minutes (of the third quarter are paramount),’ ” Ratzek said. “You have to come out in the opening minutes of the second half and get that intensity going.”

Burlington Central scored the last 4 points of the second quarter to break the final of three deadlocks to take a 26-22 lead into halftime.

TaVontae Harris and Schutta had bookend 3-pointers to sandwich conventional field goals from Ratzek and Michael Kalusa for a 36-22 lead in the first few minutes of the third quarter.

“We just had to grind the game out the entire time,” Schutta said. “We can’t give (underdog) teams like that any sort of confidence.”

But after only five lost possessions in the opening half, Burlington Central had its own issues with misplays in the third quarter.

Montini, which received a game-high 18 points from Jayston Williams, climbed back with 7 points by the end of the quarter as the Rockets suffered 8 turnovers in the third.

But when Patrick Mayfield and Ratzek opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back buckets, Montini would never come within a single-figure deficit again.

Anthony Thompson tried to revive the Broncos’ spirits by scoring 8 of his 10 points in the final quarter, but Emmanuel Wells’ backbreaking three-point play for the Rockets with three minutes, 31 seconds to play more or less sealed the game.

Inserted for the first time late in the fourth quarter, the Rockets’ Javyon Johnson scored consecutive field goals to symbolically put the game away.

“I thought we did all right in the second half,” Porto said.

Wells and Kalusa scored 9 points each for the Rockets.

— Kevin McGavin

Geneva 48, Lyons Twp. 33:

Dom Navigato is called “Big Cat” by his Geneva teammates.

Big Cat was on the prowl Tuesday night.

The 6-foot-5 senior scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down a personal-high 17 rebounds to power the Vikings past Lyons 48-33 at the Class 4A Downers Grove North regional semifinals.

Geneva (28-2) will take on the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between Downers North and Hinsdale South in Friday’s final.

“Since I’m a senior, every game (could be) our last game,” Navigato said. “I just try to play my heart out and I played really well tonight and helped us get the win.”

Did he ever. Navigato tallied 13 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, during a first half in which the other Vikings struggled offensively.

The game was tied at 18 at halftime.

“In the first half we struggled a little bit from beyond the arc,” Navigato said. “We weren’t finishing well.

“At halftime we got a good talk from our coach and we came out strong and played well, great hard defense and we made some open shots.”

Indeed, the third quarter was the decisive period. Geneva outscored the Lions 14-5, opening the second half with a 9-0 run.

“The start of the third quarter was the key to the game,” Lyons coach Tom Sloan said. “They were quicker to the ball on the glass.

“They played like a team that was expecting to take over the game. They made fundamentally sound plays and we gave up several offensive rebounds.

Navigato only had 3 points in the quarter but he picked up 9 rebounds. He had all 6 of the Vikings’ offensive rebounds and all but 9 of their overall total.

“They weren’t really boxing me out,” Navigato said. “So I was just crashing the boards hard and just got the rebounds.”

The Lions (14-14) elected not to double-team Navigato and there was a reason for that.

“He’s very good and the biggest problem is they have multiple really good players, so you can’t focus on one guy,” Sloan said. “If you focus on one guy, somebody else is going to hurt you and that’s the sign of a really good team.”

Jack McDonald triggered the third-quarter run with a layup and scored all 11 of his points after intermission. Mitch Mascari added 8 points and Cole Navigato and Matt Johnston, who was tasked with guarding 6-8 forward Connor Niego, both scored 4.

Niego led the Lions with 12 points but shot 5-for-12 and had only 2 rebounds.

“The job that Matt Johnston did on Niego was also key,” Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. “I know he had 12 points but we were really, really concerned about that.

“So we went with a unique defensive adjustment by putting Johnston on him. That allowed the ‘Big Cat’ to get his boards tonight.”

That allowed Big Cat and the Vikings to roar another day, while Sloan has seen enough.

“He’s a good player who makes tough plays,” Sloan said.

“If you’re not playing against him, it’s fun to watch.”

— Matt Le Cren

Kaneland 48, Aurora Central Catholic 40:

It’s that time of year you can throw out the records, which is just what the Kaneland boys basketball team couldn’t wait to do.

Entering the Class 3A Sycamore regional this week at 8-20 with the No. 8 seed, and playing No. 2 seed and 20-6 Aurora Central Catholic on Tuesday night, none of that mattered one bit.

Dan Franck scored a personal-high 24 points, Kyle Stuart led a physical defensive effort against electric scorer Brett Czerak, and Kaneland walked away with a 48-40 upset win.

“I don’t think anybody picked us to win,” Franck said. “We’re not really favored in any games anymore. We’re going to run with that. The intensity was cranked up this game.”

The Knights (10-20) held the Chargers to a season low to advance to the regional championship Friday night against either Genoa-Kingston or Sycamore.

“All year long we’ve felt like we’re better than our record shows,” Kaneland coach Joe Conroy said. “We’ve taken our lumps all year long. We feel like we have way more to prove. To get to Friday night is a step in the right direction.”

Playing a box-and-one for the first time this year on Czerak, ACC’s all-time leading scorer, the Chargers instead went to Mac Cowen early. He buried two 3-point shots to make it 6-0, which turned out to be Aurora Central’s biggest lead.

— John Lemon