Burlington Central upends Dundee-Crown

Their 2-0 start will likely come to mind when the Burlington Central boys basketball players reflect on what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving.

The Rockets followed up Tuesday's 34-point victory over Newark by shooting 60 percent from the field against Dundee-Crown in a 44-32 victory at the Leland Strombom Tournament in Sycamore on Wednesday.

Central shot 21 of 35 from the floor and outrebounded D-C 22-15, paced by Ryan Fitzgerald. The 6-foot-5 junior led all scorers with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting and he grabbed 4 rebounds.

"The guards are finding us inside, we're getting open, we're posting hard, we're executing, we're finding open shots," Fitzgerald explained. "It's going good so far."

Burlington Central senior guard Drew Wiss led a defensive effort that limited D-C to 36-percent shooting (14 of 39). Central coach Brett Porto hit the Chargers with a diamond-and-one defense with Wiss shadowing D-C senior Kiwaun Seals, who had scored 27 of the Chargers' 47 points in Monday's season-opening loss to Rockford Jefferson. Wiss held Seals to 8 points on 4-of-10 shooting while scoring 11 points of his own.

The game was tied at 11-11 in the second quarter until the Rockets went on a 12-2 run, fueled by 4 points from Wiss and 6 of senior guard Stefan Jochum's 8 points. Fitzgerald at one point fed an outlet pass to Jochum, who scored from the baseline in transition to give his team a 21-11 lead with 2:49 left in the half.

"We're really sharing the ball," Jochum said. "I mean, every other night we're going to have a different guy (as high scorer), so that really helps."

Dundee-Crown trailed 22-15 at the half and was able to cut the deficit to 5 on three occasions, twice on baskets by freshman Jack Orndahl. He led the Chargers with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. D-C last drew within 5 points of the Rockets via Sam Buckley's 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the game.

Central answered with a 7-0 surge that included a 3-pointer from Wiss, an inside bucket by Luke McCurdy and a fortunate tip-in of McCurdy's missed free throw by Fitzgerald, resulting in a 12-point lead with 4:02 left.

"We got it to 5 a couple of times, but we couldn't get the big one to put us over the hump," D-C coach Lance Huber said.

McCurdy finished with 8 points and a team-best 6 rebounds and senior Nathan Moxness grabbed 5 rebounds for Central, which resumes tournament play against Jefferson on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Buckley finished with 9 points and 3 rebounds for Dundee-Crown. The Chargers are back in action against Newark on Friday at 6:30 p.m.