Burlington Central hangs on to down Kaneland
Two weeks ago, a win over Kaneland wasn't so easy for Burlington Central's boys basketball team to begin the Plano Christmas tournament.
Friday's 50-49 win over the Knights to kick off their own MLK Classic proved to be even tougher for the Rockets.
Kaneland (4-11) led and outplayed Central all first half and once again late, but it took Zach Schutta's 3-pointer off a screen from the top of the key with 1:25 left to get the Rockets up 2 and out with a win.
"They had been switching screens up top and it's a play that (Schutta's) run for us all three years since he's been up here," Central coach Brett Porto said. "I felt it was the right time to call that play and (Ta Vontae Harris) made a good pass to him."
The shot gave Central (13-1) breathing room after not scoring in almost 4 minutes. It also helped the Rockets to their fourth-straight win and Kaneland its fifth-straight loss while Schutta's third trey of the game also served the junior some solace as well.
"Coach usually puts me in that situation when we're down and we need a big shot," said Schutta, who finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds. "I made two turnovers before that so I was looking for some redemption."
Kaneland's culprit for the BC comeback was its season-long nemesis: the third quarter. The Knights led by as many as 6 and took a 2-point lead into the half but watched BC go on a 13-3 run out of the half.
Will Hough's second 3-pointer with 4:11 left gave Central a 34-26 lead and Joey Ratzek scored 4 of his team-high 14 points during that stretch that allowed the Rockets to grab their first lead. Central finished 7-for-13 from the field in the quarter after a 39 percent clip in the first half while Kaneland coughed up 4 turnovers.
"We've been in a lot of games but the third quarter we always dig ourselves a 10-point hole that we have to dig out of," Knights coach Joe Conroy said. "It's so hard to fight from that deficit."
Two missed free throws down the stretch and some costly turnovers did hurt the Knights as well, but they had it down to 2 on Blake Feiza's putback just before the quarter's end and grabbed a 44-43 lead on Jake Hed's 3-pointer in the right corner with 5 minutes left in the fourth.
"The first time we played Burlington we were down one to start the fourth quarter," Conroy added. "We were right there. We played Rochelle last week and we were right in that game till the end."
Feiza led all scorers with 17 points to with 3 rebounds while Rhett Espe added 10 points as Kaneland shot 48.5 percent from the field. Feiza's layup in transition at the 2:40 mark gave Kaneland its final lead at 46-45. But Schutta's 3-pointer, 2 Kaneland turnovers and a quick transition layup by Ratzek to put BC up 4 in the waning seconds helped the Rockets escape.
"We played Central basketball," Ratzek said of the second half, when the Rockets attacked the rim (5 layups), improved their shot selection and shot 11-for-21. "(Schutta's 3) was a big play and some buckets in the paint sparked us and we had a few defensive plays on the other end too."