Boys Basketball: Ray Hunnicutt rallies Burlington Central by Genoa-Kingston

Burlington Central senior Ray Hunnicutt already broke Genoa-Kingston’s hearts once this season with a last-second, game-winning layup just over three weeks ago.

On Friday night, Hunnicutt helped to do it again. However, this time around he got some assistance from some unexpected sources. The Rockets overcame a seven-point deficit with 2:30 to play by scoring the final 11 points to pull out a 72-68 Big Northern East win.

Hunnicutt led the way with a game-high 25 points, including a pair of free throws with 50 seconds left to play that put the Rockets ahead 70-68. Reserves Charles Horton and Malik Harris also came off the bench to hit huge shots down the stretch. The Rockets (15-9 overall) improved to 6-2 in the Big Northern East to remain in a first-place tie with Richmond-Burton.

“We’ve been in these situations before where we have been down,” said Hunnicutt. “We’ve learned to keep fighting and scrapping. We don’t give up. A lot of guys stepped up and made some big plays tonight.

The Rockets trailed 68-61 with 2:18 remaining when Horton was left alone to drain a three pointer that started the comeback. After a defensive stop Bryce Warner hit 1 of 2 free throws on the Rockets’ next possession to trim the deficit to 68-65 with 1:45 left in the game.

The Cogs had an opportunity to go up five with a 1:10 left but Adam Price missed a layup. Warner grabbed the rebound and the Rockets quickly got it up court and into the hands of Harris, who was also left open. Harris responded by knocking down a three-pointer to tie the game at 68-68 with 1:00 left to play.

“That just shows how much he has grown throughout the year,” said Central coach Brett Porto.”He probably doesn’t hit that shot earlier in the year. But he is playing with more and more confidence and to hit that shot in that pressure situation was big. We had a lot of guys step up tonight. When you are down like that you have to fight for every possession and we just kept battling the whole way.”

After the Rockets tied the game Hunnicutt had a defensive steal on the other end. He was fouled as he drove into the frontcourt to set up his two go ahead free throws. Hunnicutt added two insurance free throws with seven seconds left to play. The four-year starter now has 1,455 career points just 49 points behind the Rockets’ all-time leading scorer, Gavin Schaier.

Genoa-Kingston (10-15, 3-6) was shooting a solid 29-of-60 from the field until missing its final six shots down the stretch.

“I wasn’t real pleased with the way we played defense most of the night,” said Porto. “We gave up way too many easy baskets. But at least we were able to come up with the defensive stops down the stretch when we needed them most.”

Matthew Rasmussen had 23 points to lead the Cogs in scoring. Mason Lucca added 18.

“We just didn’t make the plays at the end that we needed to make,” said G-K coach Corey Jenkins. “You have to give a couple of those kids on Central a lot of credit. We rolled the dice and wanted to force some one other than Hunnicutt and Ritchie to beat us and a couple of their guys hit some big shots.”

Ryan Ritchie added 17 points for Central

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