Boys Basketball: Burlington Central coasts past Harvard

Updated: January 11, 2012 10:03PM

Not much went wrong for Burlington Central on Wednesday night in a 73-25 victory over host Harvard in a Big Northern East matchup.

The Rockets (9-8, 1-1) got off to a quick start even though they didn’t shoot particularly well from the field. Thanks in part to Central’s pressure defense and ability to create turnovers, the Rockets jumped out to an 18-5 lead after the first quarter. The Hornets got no closer all night.

The shots started to fall from all over for Central in the second quarter. The Rockets’ Ryan Ritchie started draining three pointers, and Burlington Central jumped out to a 46-18 halftime lead. Ritchie led the Rockets with 20 points in just over two quarters played.

“I started getting good open looks and the shots started to fall for me,” said Ritchie. “I’ve started to gain a lot of confidence in my shot and have been working on it a lot. I feel as though that showed in tonight’s game.”

Burlington Central didn’t slow down in the second half. The Rockets came out and scored a quick 10 points and increased their lead to 63-24 after the third quarter. In the second half Central was able to use its bench more and get guys some minutes who normally don’t play much.

Even though Harvard (1-11, 0-2) came in with just one victory this season, Rockets coach Brett Porto knew this was an important game for his team.

“With how bad we played last week, we really needed a win and I was happy with how the kids played tonight,” said Porto. “We did what we needed to do to win and hopefully this game will give us some momentum in the second half of the season.”

Ray Hunnicutt added 17 points for Burlington Central, and Malik Harris scored 12 points off the bench for the Rockets.

Harvard was led by Dylan Witt and Dane Miller, who each scored six points.

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