Every single game, junior guard Mike Kalusa brings defense, intensity and attitude for Burlington Central.
For Monday’s championship game of the Burlington Central Martin Luther King Tournament, Kalusa also brought along some much-needed offense.
Kalusa scored 19 points to help the Rockets turn back Kishwaukee River rival Marengo 64-57 as Burlington Central won its own tournament for the second straight season.
“He’s a big-time player for us,” Burlington coach Brett Porto said of Kalusa.
The 6-foot-1 Kalusa shot 8-for-10 and had four steals. He scored seven points in the fourth quarter, when shaky free-throw shooting by Burlington Central (16-1) could have meant squandering a 13-point lead.
Marengo (14-4) outscored the Rockets 14-5 to start the third quarter and pulled within 42-39 to make it a battle.
“Third quarter has been our death trap in this tournament, where we come out and have a big lead,” Kalusa said. “We lose the big lead, lose our composure and settle, I guess. We slowed it down and it kind of helped them.
“But we came out strong the rest of the game.”
Kalusa played strong defense all game but drew an early technical foul while trying to stop Marengo scoring threat Michael Volkening.
“Emotions were running high,” Kalusa said. “I stole the ball from Volkening and he’s a great player. I just kind of said ‘yeah’ right in front of his face. So it was just like emotions running high.”
Volkening still scored a game-high 22, but he worked hard for every point. And Kalusa was there with the scoring at a crucial point in the fourth quarter.
Marengo reduced the 13-point deficit to 47-46 with 4:55 remaining. Kalusa then stepped up with a long 3-pointer from the wing to push the lead back to 50-46.
Kalusa came back with a fast-break layup with 2:42 remaining to give the Rockets a 54-48 lead, and the rest of the game became a matter of making free throws and defense for Burlington.
Kalusa added two free throws with 1:26 remaining to pad the Rockets’ lead to 59-53, and Marengo never got closer than five again.
The Rockets received 13 points from Ta Vontae Harris and Joe Ratzek, but Burlington missed seven free throws in the fourth quarter, and that made it a close game.
“We’ve just been OK with free throws,” Porto said. “Usually we hit enough at the end. It was just enough to keep them at bay.”
The same teams have to play again on Friday in a conference play.
“It will definitely be weird playing them again,” Kalusa said.
Behind a career-high 23 points from guard Tim Wolf, Elgin (11-8) took fifth in the tournament with a 70-57 win over Hampshire (4-13). Elgin led 55-27 during the third quarter before Hampshire rallied.
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“One issue we’ve never had is that we’re a selfish team,” Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. “So you saw good ball movement and a lot of people scoring in the first half and that got us the lead.”
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