Burlington Central falls to Streator
Effort was not an issue for Burlington Central in a 59-55 loss to Streator at the 52nd Plano Christmas Classic on Monday.
Execution was.
Two days after a one-sided loss to Morris, the Rockets drew within a point of the lead when freshman Zach Schutta's 3-pointer trimmed Streator's advantage to 52-51 with 1:35 to play.
However, after 6-foot-4 senior Max Vickers gave Streator a 54-51 lead with a high bank shot with 1:08 left, the Rockets were whistled for an over-and-back violation.
Senior Jake Houch (6-5) subsequently sank a pair of free throws to make it a 5-point game with 51 seconds left. The Rockets then fell victim to a steal by Streator senior guard Jeremy McAfee with 45 seconds showing on the clock.
Central (7-6) made a couple of baskets, including a coast-to-coast layup by junior Luke McCurdy with 10 seconds left to pull within 58-55, but Houch split a pair of free throws with 2.5 seconds remaining to make it a 2-possession game. Trailing by 4 points, Central was unable to launch a desperation shot at the buzzer.
"I thought our effort was much better because we didn't play with any effort at all on Saturday," Central coach Brett Porto said. "It was just a couple of things near the end. I told them I really liked our execution from 38 seconds (to the end), but from 1:05 to about 40 seconds we had 2 turnovers, and you can't do that in a game like that at the end."
Central will face Ottawa for seventh place on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. Streator (9-4), which has won 9 of its last 11, plays LaSalle-Peru for fifth place at 5:30 p.m.
"Last year we did pretty well down here," Central senior forward Ryan Fitzgerald said. "This year we were thinking we were doing pretty well, but we really haven't played our brand of basketball here. We need to start doing that more going into conference play next week."
Houch scored 7 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter to go with 8 rebounds, matching Vickers for high-scoring honors. McAfee finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.
"Jake was clutch for us again in the fourth quarter," Streator coach Bo Doty said. "That's two out of three games that he's stepped up for us and made a bunch of free throws in the fourth quarter. And that was a physical game."
Central led 18-13 after a quarter, but the Bulldogs shot the Rockets out of a second-quarter zone defense as four different players - Vickers, Brandon Godfrey, William Phillips and Damion Nambo - connected from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs won the quarter 18-7 to take a 31-25 halftime lead.
The Rockets stormed ahead late in the third quarter. After senior guard Stefan Jochum tied the game at 42-42 with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc, Schutta followed his own miss to give Central its first lead of the second half with 1:45 left in the period.
The Rockets took their last lead, 44-42, on a low-post move by Fitzgerald with 7:28 left in the game, but the Bulldogs scored the next 6 points on baskets by Phillips, McAfee and Vickers and never trailed again.