Burlington Central dunks Dundee-Crown
They may have to start calling him Dunkin’ Ozburn.
Burlington Central’s big man, Duncan Ozburn, had 18 points, including a fourth-quarter slam, and 7 blocked shots to lead the Rockets past Dundee-Crown, 64-55, at the Leland G. Strombom boys basketball tournament in Sycamore Tuesday night.
After Ozburn, the Rockets featured a balanced attack as six players scored between 4 and 10 points and 10 Rockets scored in all. Sean Fitzgerald had 10 points and 6 rebounds, while Reed Hunnicutt and Brett Rau scored 7 apiece for the Rockets in the season opener for both teams.
“I think that’s just the type of team we’re going to be this year,” said Central coach Brett Porto. “So if we can ever get everyone making good decisions, I think on any given night, we’ve got guys who can put points on the board for us.
“If we can fix some of the sloppiness on both ends, things can definitely go in the right direction for us.”
“The first game definitely had momentum and I was glad to get going again,” said Ozburn. “We were fired up on both ends and we played very well.”
Kiwaun Seals came off the bench to lead the Chargers with 18 points, as Zach Pochop and Nick Munson added 12 apiece.
The Rockets never trailed but could never quite shake the Chargers, either. Central led 33-20 after Ozburn scored the first points of the second half, but then watched the Chargers trim the margin to 2 at 37-35 on a basket by Seals. Fitzgerald responded with 5 straight points to keep the Rockets safely in front.
Chargers’ coach Lance Huber was less than enamored with his team’s defensive effort.
“It all comes down to guarding,” he said. “We’ve got some guys who are more interested in scoring than in playing defense, and that’s never a recipe for success.
“We got the ball inside well, but we didn’t have an answer for the big guy, either offensively or defensively.”
The 6-foot-9 Ozburn swatted away 7 shots and altered several others against a Charger lineup whose tallest starter was 6-4.
Jacob Schutta added 6 points and Luke McCurdy chipped in 5 off the bench for Central, which shot 59 percent from the field and 74 percent from the free-throw line.