Burlington Central wins 8th straight

Gavin Sarvis dipped his right shoulder and bulldozed his way going right along the baseline to finish for a layup despite the steep Burlington Central lead in the middle of the fourth quarter Wednesday.

Sarvis, a Rockets senior, seemingly knows how to play only one way with his ultracompetitive drive: Have a "go mentality."

"I have always been very competitive, and I have always had a go mentality," Sarvis said following the Rockets' 62-36 Fox Valley Conference victory over Jacobs on Wednesday.

The Rockets (13-2, 6-0) extended their winning streak to eight games and showed little signs of slowing down following their Plano Christmas Classic championship.

Burlington Central hosted its alumni night for the boys varsity program and it featured alumni in the Hampshire/Burlington area dating back to the class of 1949 for the school. Other notable alumni included current Rockets coach Brett Porto, and former Rockets coach Mike Schmidt.

Meanwhile, the current edition of the Rockets continue to roll behind Sarvis, who finished with 14 points and three rebounds Wednesday.

"[I'm] always trying to score or make the nice pass to extend our lead to give our bench players as much playing time as possible at the end of the game," Sarvis said.

Rockets junior guard Drew Scharnowski, who added 12 points and five rebounds, simply thinks "it's always a grind."

"That's just what coach Porto has taught us, that we can never give up," Scharnowski said. "We always got to give it 100%, no matter what."

The Rockets also had standout performances Wednesday from Nick Carpenter (13 points, six rebounds) and Zac Schmidt (two points and four rebounds).

The collective effort helped Burlington Central build a 43-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Jacobs (3-12, 1-3) had 17 turnovers on the evening, and it led directly to the Eagles' struggles.

"Obviously they're [Burlington Central] a really good group," Jacobs coach Jim Roberts said. "They've been together a long time. With them, you've got to keep them out of transition. We played them twice last year and we played them tough. If we can get them in a half court game, we can guard.

"But, when it gets transition: that's bad shots; obviously turnovers, but bad shots by us. We always say 'A bad shot is the outlet pass for the other team's fast break.' So, that's the problem with them: if you let them get into that transition stuff, and they can get four, six eight quick ones on you, it's trouble."

Jacobs was paced by Isiah Johnson's 15 points, while Nick McCoy had nine points and three rebounds.

Sophomore forward Grant Stec, at 6-foot-6, made his season debut after his football season and later having oral surgery completed about a month ago.

"Just getting back," said Stec, who had two points and three rebounds. "I only had two and a half practices done before prepping for this game. It was tough. First game."

"It was fun," Stec said on his return to the court. "I'm very happy to be back. Playing in front of fans, too, this is my first game playing in front of fans. It's awesome to do that. Got a great team; we can do big things. We've got to get it going."