Late rally not enough for Burlington Central

Burlington Central rallied furiously in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets had just dug themselves too big of a hole to climb out of.

Central cut a 15-point deficit to 4 in the late going, but Marengo hung on for a 67-60 boys basketball win in Big Northern East action in Marengo Saturday.

Stefan Jochum led a quartet of Rockets in double figures with 21 points.

Marengo led 61-46 with just under 4 minutes to play, but 3-pointers on consecutive possessions by Zach Schutta and Andrew Wiss cut the deficit to single digits. After a breakaway layup by Koty Kissack made it 63-52, Jochum nailed a 3-pointer. Schutta stole the ball in the backcourt and made a layup to make it 63-57.

After the teams traded free throws, Schutta made 2 foul shots to make it 64-60, but that was as close as the Rockets could get. The Indians made 3 more free throws down the stretch to ice it.

"We had too many empty possessions in the fourth quarter," said Central coach Brett Porto. "For whatever reason we would stall or freeze up and not attack. Other than those empty possessions, it was a pretty good fourth quarter for us."

Schutta finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds off the bench for Central (7-8, 2-3). Luke McCurdy scored 11 points and Wiss added 10 for the Rockets.

Zach Knoblock led Marengo with 16 points, including 10 in the second half. Ben Volkening added 14.

Central led 14-13 after a steal and layup by Jochum, but Marengo answered with an 8-1 run to take the lead for good.

"Our inability to rebound the basketball, it's as simple as that," said Porto when asked what put the Rockets in a hole. "It's our Achilles' heel."

Indeed, the Indians outrebounded the Rockets 20-15 through the first 3 periods, including 8 offensive rebounds in the first half alone. It didn't hurt that Marengo shot 55 percent for the game (24-for-44) while holding the Rockets to 44 percent.