Boys Basketball: Burlington Central grinds out win over Marengo

Updated: December 6, 2011 11:08PM

On a night when the shots weren’t falling, Burlington Central needed to rely on some of the little things.

The Rockets did just enough Tuesday to pull out a 63-55 win over visiting Marengo to open Big Northern East play, as senior Ray Hunnicutt led the way with 24 points. Right from the start the Rockets found out nothing was going to come easy against the Indians. Marengo grabbed the first 12 rebounds in the game and Central shot just 4-of-12 from the field to fall behind 13-9 after the first period.

However, a switch to a zone defense and a lift from Clint Creal off the bench in the second quarter began to turn things around for the Rockets. Warner had two putback baskets, one that turned into a three-point play. It began a remarkable turnaround on the boards as the Rockets went on to outrebound Marengo 36-19 over the final three periods.

“I don’t get a lot of playing time so whenever I get my chance I try to do whatever I can to earn some more,” Creal said. “I knew we were struggling rebounding so I just did what I could do to help out. We didn’t really play as well as we wanted to but we did what took to win.”

Midway through the second quarter, Ryan Ritchie scored on a layup in transition off a steal to give the Rockets their first lead of the game 18-17. Central grabbed the lead for good seconds before halftime when Charles Horton banked in a three-pointer to break a 28-28 tie.

The Rockets then took control early in the third quarter, scoring the first seven points to pull out to a 38-28 advantage. Ritchie nailed a three to open the second-half scoring. Ray Hunnicutt followed up with a turnaround jumper in the lane and Reed Hunnicutt closed the run with a 12-foot jumper.

Marengo managed to pull to within three points later in the third quarter, but Ray Hunnicutt managed to keep the Indians at bey with three more buckets in the final three minutes of the third quarter.

“It was ugly but we got it done,” said Ray Hunnicutt. “Things didn’t start great but we just kept after it. We turned it up on the defnsive end and we started hitting the boards.”

Central (3-3) scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 51-41 and pull away for good. Four of those points came on two more putback baskets by Duncan Ozborn and Moter Deng, who had eight points and eight rebounds off the bench. Hunnicutt led the Rockets’ resurgence on the boards with nine rebounds.

“They were killing us on the boards early on,” said Central coach Brett Porto. “The switch to zone help to put us in better spots to rebound and then we got some great individual efforts to help turn things around. It was nice to see so many players step it up.”

The Rockets overcame 38 percent (23-of-60) shooting.

“Some nights the shots are not going to fall,” said Porto. “That’s when good teams find other ways to win. It took a little while for us to recognize the adjustments we needed to make and we never really got into any flow, but eventually we were able to at least work the tempo of the game into our favor.”

Zach Lundquist led Marengo (2-4, 1-1) with 27 points.

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