Quinn Carrier was off. And then she went off.

The Sycamore junior poured in 17 of her 19 points in the second half, including nine in the decisive fourth quarter to lift the Spartans to a 50-43 win over Burlington Central on Thursday to win the Class 3A Sycamore Regional.

Sycamore (23-10) advances to the Crystal Lake Central Sectional and will face Crystal Lake South (24-6) in a semifinal at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“I was off in the first half for sure, so it was really hard,” Carrier said. “So I had to get out of my head and tell myself the next shot was going in. Coach (Adam Wickness) said that half was over so go into the new half with a new mindset and play confident and shots ended up going in and helped us. When I got the ball in my hands I knew to just shoot it and I felt the rhythm and it felt great.”

Carrier also collected a game-high 13 rebounds.

Burlington Central (22-10) tied the game at 31-31 on Audrey LaFleur’s long 3-pointer with 6:25 left in the fourth quarter.

Carrier answered right back, draining one of her own with 5:52 left to reclaim the lead that the Spartans did not relinquish.

“They came right back and we prepared against that and knew Sadie (Lang) and Quinn (Carrier) were going to get looks,” Burlington Central coach Mike Carani said. “We did everything we could to get them off their spot and to their credit they played really well and got a lot of key rebounds down in the end in the second half, that’s really what made the impact.”

Carrier’s short jumper in the lane with 5:18 left in opening half was just the second field goal of the game from the Spartans. They only mustered three points in the opening 11 minutes, but scored 13 to close the half to pull within 18-16 at the break.

While the Spartans struggled to score points, their defense ensured the Rockets suffered a similar fate.

“We do five keys to every game and our first two keys were solely related to stopping the actions that they were very good at,” Wickness said. “They’re a very good team when they get penetration to the paint, and outstanding at playing off (Jordyn Charles) and kicking off to the corner. They have some really good set shooters. Part of our game plan was to protect the paint. I thought we did a really nice job of that, especially through the first quarter when our offense was struggling to come around.”

The Spartans built a 42-34 lead after a scoop layup from Carrier with 2:29 remaining.

But just as it appeared Sycamore was pulling away, the Rockets rallied behind 3-pointers from LaFleur (11 points) and senior Ashley Waslo (17 points).

The latter from Waslo pulled the Rockets to within 44-41 with 1:06 to play.

Unable to force a turnover, the Rockets fouled to send Callie Countryman to the free throw line with 53.8 seconds left and the junior delivered on both attempts.

“I have not shot them good actually,” she said. “Every time I go I start freaking out a little bit, especially because I have not been shooting them well this season, but in the moment I told myself to do it and it happened.”

Sycamore sophomore Sadie Lang converted 7-of-8 free throws, handling the ball amongst the defensive pressure from the Rockets, finishing with 17 points.

“It definitely feels great coming from last year with a bit of a rough season,” she said. “All our goals this year for our whole team was to make it better than we did last year and obviously we’ve done that in being able to make it far in the postseason and all that. It’s great.”

Wickness reminded the girls they were 8-23 last season with goals of finishing better than that, perhaps around the .500 mark. Now they’re regional champs and have won as many games as they lost a year ago.

“And now they have a good chance to go out and compete for a sectional,” Wickness said. “I’m just so proud of them. The resilience, the effort, the showing up every day, the willingness to push each other at practice, and top to bottom everyone on this team competes and that’s why we’ve gotten a lot better.”

Burlington Central beat Sycamore, 55-51, a week before Thanksgiving.

“The way that our teams match up, we knew this was going to have to be an extremely high defensive effort,” Carani said. “I thought our girls played well. Their girls hit some big shots, especially in key moments. I felt we got some good looks along the way, just didn’t get them to fall.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/daily-chronicle/2026/02/20/quinn-carrier-scores-17-points-in-second-half-to-help-sycamore-top-burlington-central-for-3a-regional-title/