Burlington Central to play for MLK title
Burlington Central's boys basketball team will get a chance to defend its own MLK Classic title following Saturday night's 70-68 victory over Hampshire.
Junior Zach Schutta and senior Joey Ratzek scored 19 and 16 points, respectively, as the Rockets (15-1) improved to 3-0 for the tournament and advanced to Monday's 4:30 p.m. championship clash against Kishwaukee River Conference foe Marengo.
"It's going to be a little weird when you play them Monday and come back and play them again on Friday," Rockets coach Brett Porto said of the Indians. "We'll just see what happens and see if we can play our game."
Against Hampshire (4-12), the Rockets' game involved building a double-digit lead before halftime.
After outscoring the Whip-Purs 17-11 in the opening stanza, the Rockets went on a 19-10 second-quarter surge to extend their lead to 36-21 at the intermission.
Ratzek and Schutta provided much of the offense, as the duo combined for 17 second-quarter points.
"Those two have been a great 1-2 punch for us," said Porto. "I thought they screened for us very well and gave us a nice look. It's tough to help on one of them when they're screening for each other."
Despite giving up 4 inches and 40 pounds to Hampshire senior center Nathan Gomez (12 points, 15 rebounds), Ratzek relied on his guile and quickness to hold his own in the paint.
"I've been kind of figuring it out playing as a guard in the post," said Ratzek. "Each day, I learn something new in that position. It takes a lot of effort and hard work pushing your way through.
"When our point guard (Ta Vontae Harris) sees an opening down there, I get a dish and that's how I get going."
Porto wasn't surprised with Ratzek's gritty performance.
"Joey is a high-energy, high-effort guy," said the coach. "He battles for us. We're used to those types of efforts from Joey."
Trailing 55-40 after 3 quarters, Hampshire made things interesting late.
Led by junior Frederick Powell (19 points), sophomore J.D. Shaw (12 points) and senior William Dumoulin (10 points), the Whip-Purs trimmed a 66-54 deficit to 3 at 68-65 on Powell's deep 30-foot, 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds left.
After Harris (8 points, 7 assists, 4 steals) made it 70-65 on a pair of free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining, Hampshire's Nathan Cork drained a 55-footer at the buzzer to close out the scoring.
"We're going to fight hard until the end," said Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse said. "That's what these guys do.
"It was a tighter game early and then we went into a spell where we stopped cutting hard, we stopped screening and we started to feel sorry for ourselves. The next thing we know, we're down 15 at the half."
Emmanuel Wells added 9 points for the Rockets.