Mr. Basketball candidate Markus Burton shines in Penn's sectional semifinal win over Goshen

ELKHART — Penn boys basketball coach Al Rhodes calls his star guard Markus Burton a "very well-rounded player."

The Kingsmen coach and Hall of Famer absolutely knows greatness when he sees it.

Burton, the Notre Dame bound backcourt stud, poured in 36 points Saturday night to pace Penn past Goshen 55-37 in the semifinal game of the Class 4A Elkhart Sectional at venerable North Side Gym.

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The No. 2 Kingsmen, now 25-1 and winners of 19 in a row, advances to play Northridge (15-10) in the sectional title game Monday night at 7 p.m. Northridge outlasted Concord 51-47 in double overtime in the second semifinal contest Saturday night. Penn beat Northridge 85-42 on January 17. The pair of semifinal games were postponed Friday night due to the weather.

The Elkhart Sectional winner advances to the Michigan City Regional next Saturday to face the Crown Point Sectional winner at 2 p.m. ET. Chesterton (19-5) faces Valparaiso (13-13) Monday night in the finale at Crown Point.

Goshen, which lost 80-41 to Penn in the regular season, finishes at 11-12.

Burton, an electric 6-1 star, also led his team with 10 rebounds and seven steals Saturday night. That came after the Mr. Basketball frontrunner notched a triple-double in the sectional opening win over Elkhart Tuesday night.

The Kingsmen, who lead the state in scoring at 78 points a game, won this one with their defense. Penn forced Goshen into 18 turnovers, leading to 27 points. The Kingsmen, after a 14-14 first quarter deadlock, outscored Goshen 16-6 in the second period thanks to a 15-0 run over a key 5:39 stretch. Penn forced the RedHawks into nine turnovers in the pivotal period to lead 30-20 at halftime.

"We picked up the pressure in the second quarter," noted Rhodes. "Credit Goshen in that first quarter. They moved the ball well and we did not play hard enough on defense. We sped up the tempo in the second quarter. We had to. We got some easy baskets off our defense and that got us the lead at half."

Burton, who entered play leading the state in scoring at 29.8 ppg., now has 2,145 career points, tied for 34th place in state history with Charlie McKenzie of Claypool/Warsaw. Burton passed former Concord High School superstar and NBA All-Star Shawn Kemp Saturday night. Kemp had 2,134 points at Concord. He also passed Indiana Hall of Famers Steve Alford, Kyle Macy and Michael Lewis on the exclusive career point total list in the victory.

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Rhodes, who has coached a pair of Mr. Basketball winners in Jeff Grose and Kevin Ault at Warsaw, knows the value of his do-it-all superstar.

"Markus is just a very well-rounded player," said Rhodes, owner of 690 wins and a state title in his 42 prep seasons. "He leads us in scoring, assists and is our leading rebounder for the third straight year. He has unbelievable quick hands on defense and sealed this game with a couple of steals in the fourth quarter. No doubt he should be Mr. Basketball."

Burton scored 14 of his team's 17 fourth quarter points. He put the game away with a steal and slam dunk to cap a 7-2 run to make it 45-30 with 6:18 to play. Burton has now scored in double figures in 53 straight games.

"This was a rough win, but we got the job done as a team," said Burton, who scored 30 points in the regular season win over Goshen. "The first sectional game Tuesday night I just looked to do other stuff. Tonight, the team needed me to score. We focus a lot on defense, and we played that really good tonight in the second quarter and the second half."

Penn was without second leading scorer Joey Garwood. The senior guard, who averages 12 ppg, was out due to an illness. Rhodes said he hopes to have Garwood back for the sectional final, but was uncertain about his status for Monday night.

Junior Ryan Eldridge led Goshen with 11 points and eight rebounds. Senior Quinn Bechtel scored eight points and junior Gage Worthman seven.

"We wanted to make Penn play tonight and I felt we did that," said Goshen coach Michael Wohlford. "My team has improved so much this season. We just had too many turnovers (12) in that first half.

"We also wanted to make Burton play tonight and I thought we did that too. He should be Mr. Basketball. I feel 100 percent he's Mr. Basketball. No one in the state watches more high school games and players than I do and he's definitely Mr. Basketball."

PENN 55, GOSHEN 37

PENN (55): Markus Burton 14 7-11 36, Joe Smith 1 0-0 2, Josh Gatete 0 0-0 0, Dylan Derda 1 0-0 2, Trey Miller 2 0-0 5, Dominic Bonner 2 2-3 6, Ethan Good 0 0-1 0, Mookie Ward 2 0-0 4, Nolan McCullough 0 0-0 0, Maverick Brown 0 0-0 0, Alexander Hawthorne 0 0-0 0, Dylan Fey 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22 9-15 55.

GOSHEN (37): Noah Alford 2 0-0 6, Deecon Hill 1 0-0 3, Quinn Bechtel 3 2-2 8, Gage Worthman 3 0-0 7, Ryan Eldridge 5 1-2 11, Braxton Cline 0 0-0 0, Nathan Pinarski 1 0-0 2, Aidan Ebright Zehr 0 0-0 0, Will Herschberger 0 0-0 0, Lleyton Weddell 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 3-4 37.

3-point goals: Penn 2 (Burton, Miller), Goshen 4 (Alford 2, Hill, Worthman). Shooting: Penn 22-46, Goshen 15-42. Rebounds: Penn 22 (Burton 10), Goshen 25 (Eldridge 8). Assists: Penn 8 (Burton 4), Goshen 10 (Bechtel 4). Steals: Penn 14 (Burton 7), Goshen 3. Turnovers: Penn 7, Goshen 18. Team fouls (fouled out): Penn 7, Goshen 14. Team records: Goshen 11-12 (final), Penn 25-1.

Northridge 51, Concord 47 (double overtime)

A big performance by Alex Ellenson and at the free throw line enabled the Raiders to survive and advance.

Senior Ellenson poured in a game-high 23 points as the Raiders outlasted the Minutemen. He hit 11-of-15 free throws as Northridge shot 19-of-29 from the charity stripe. Concord was just 2-of-7 from the line. Concord, which had two players fouled out, was whistled for 21 fouls and Northridge 14 in the contest.

Concord, which had lost to league foe Northridge 47-30 on February 10, led 15-8 after the opening period, 23-22 at halftime and 32-29 after the third quarter.

Nolan Bales netted 10 points for the winners.

Junior Braeden Messenger led Concord with 19 points. Sophomore Lucas Prough added 10 for the Minutemen, who finish at 11-11.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: IHSAA boys basketball Class 4A Elkhart Sectional semifinal games