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Schutta hits 1,000 as Burlington Central topples Johnsburg

It was a successful night all around for the Burlington Central boys basketball team.

In front of an appreciative home crowd, junior guard Zach Schutta shared game-high honors with 18 points, and in the process, became the ninth boys player in Rockets' history to eclipse the 1,000 point career mark.

The Rockets forced Johnsburg into 23 turnovers with their frenetic defense and used an impressive 25-9 third quarter surge to secure a 79-54 victory Friday night and remain tied at 8-2 with Richmond-Burton atop of the Kishwaukee River Valley Conference standings.

"Zach's a special player and it's a special accomplishment. It was really awesome for him to do it here at home," said Central coach Brett Porto. "Those were all great basketball players to come through here and he's a part of that now."

"I was sort of hoping to just get it over with early on so I could focus on the rest of the game and getting the win," said Schutta, who scored 246 points as a freshman, 364 as a sophomore and has 398 to date this season.

"Zach's my shooting partner in practice every day and he makes a lot there, so it figures he'd get 1,000 tonight," said senior Joey Ratzek, who added 15 points. "He works hard and we're all happy for him."

Central (23-3) jumped in front 10-0 just over a minute into the game, but Johnsburg (12-16, 5-6) recovered to take a 24-22 lead in the opening second of the second quarter.

Jackson LaMarche tallied 15 points in the opening half while Zach Toussaint added 8 as the Skyhawks trailed just 39-34 at the half.

"We came in at half and knew what we needed to fix, it was just a matter of taking action and executing," Ratzek said.

Central executed to perfection in the second half as LaMarche and Toussaint combined for just 6 points, and the Rockets ripped off a 13-point run to seize a 60-41 advantage with two minutes left in the third quarter.

Ratzek, TaVonte Harris (11 points), Michael Kalusa (8 points) and William Hough all scored for the Rockets during the stretch.

"I was really pleased to see our second half adjustments at both ends of the court and especially the defensive end," Porto said.

"We held them to 20 points in the second half and it was a willingness to keep the ball in front, be in the right help positioning and boxing out."

"We were just playing hard defense which leads to our offense," Harris said. "We kept forcing turnovers, which wore them down and took them out of their offense."

Emmanuel Wells tallied 9 points for the Rockets while Dejsani Beamon added 9 points, 4 steals and 4 rebounds off the bench.

The Rockets know they will earn at least a share of the conference title with victories over Harvard and Woodstock North next week.

"We just want to keep taking care of our business and see what can happen. We've put ourselves in a pretty good spot and we have to get ready for these last couple of conference games and the postseason," Porto said.

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