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Burlington Central hangs on to make it 7-0

The Burlington Central boys basketball team stuck to the plan to remain undefeated with a 65-56 victory at Richmond-Burton Tuesday.

After seeing their 15-point, third-quarter lead whittled to 2 early in the fourth quarter due to R-B's effective 1-2-2 press, the visiting Rockets remembered their rules to break it more effectively down the stretch.

"We just stuck to our game, broke the press down," said sophomore guard Zach Schutta, who finished with 17 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. "All they played was the 1-2-2, so you just have to cut to the gaps, find the open man and break it down."

Richmond-Burton nevertheless stayed within 59-56 when junior guard Blaine Bayer sank a bucket with 1:46 left for the final 2 of his 12 fourth-quarter points.

However, Central returned to its high-low game to keep R-B at bay. Senior Ryan Fitzgerald received an entry pass at the top of the key and found a cutting Schutta along the baseline for a layup and a 61-56 lead with 1:18 left.

"Schutta and Ethan (Mayfield) are both always cutting right down there," said Fitzgerald, who notched 4 assists in addition to his game-high 22 points and 7 rebounds. "It works out a lot of times."

Central coach Brett Porto reminded his players during a timeout to get the ball inside.

"We let Ryan make some decisions from there and we were able to get quality shots to close out that last four minutes," Porto said.

Richmond-Burton (2-5, 0-2) came up short at the other end when a shot by guard Jakob Kaufman (14 points) didn't connect. Mayfield grabbed the rebound for Central. TaVontae Harris was subsequently fouled and sank 2 free throws with 43 seconds left to make it a 7-point game.

R-B turned the ball over on its ensuing possession with 35 seconds left to all but seal it. Mayfield and Schutta each spit a pair of free throws in the final seconds to provide the final margin.

The victory improves the Rockets to 7-0 for the first time in Porto's seven seasons. They will host North Boone on Friday then compete in the Plano Holiday Tournament, where Central is the No. 2 seed.

"We felt like we could do some nice things this year and it seems like the kids have really taken a team mentality on both ends of the floor," Porto said. "They're buying into an 'our shot' philosophy on offense.

Defensively, we still can improve but I think they've found out these first 7 games that when the going gets tough, if we can lock down defensively and force tough looks and rebound the basketball, we can be a pretty tough team."

Joey Ratzek scored 6 points and grabbed 5 rebounds and TaVontae Harris added 6 points for Central.

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