McHENRY – Veteran seniors Gavin Sarvis, Zac Schmidt, Nick Carpenter and Carson Seyller are names that come to mind when thinking of the 2021-2022 Burlington Central Rockets boys basketball team.
You can add 6-foot-7 junior center Andrew Scharnowski to that list.
With a 3-pointer, Scharnowski scored 16 points with 12 rebounds and four assists to help lead the Rockets to 67-44 win over host McHenry in Fox Valley Conference action on Friday night.
The Rockets, winners of 11 straight, are 16-2 overall and a perfect 8-0 in FVC play.
Scharnowski, who was 6 of 8 from the floor, scored 11 points in the second quarter.
“Since the season ended last spring on March 13, Andrew has been in the gym nonstop working on his game,” Burlington Central coach Brett Porto said. “His improvement is evident.”
Scharnowski grew from 6-5 to 6-7 during the offseason.
“I just got in the gym and got as many shots as I could,” Scharnowski said. “These seniors are so much fun to play with. They are so unselfish.”
The Rockets’ unselfishness was evident Friday night.
Out of 27 baskets, the Rockets dished out 20 assists.
“We had a walk-through before the game and went through a lot of cut and move situations,” Porto said. “We have ups and downs during games but we have senior leadership to get through it.”
Carpenter added 12 points with six assists while Schmidt scored eight points with five assists and Sarvis tallied seven points with four assists.
For the game, the Rockets connected on 27 of 40 from the field for a torrid 67%. Burlington committed only 8 turnovers.
Connecting on 7-of-10 shots from the field in the first quarter with five assists, the Rockets led 18-8 after one quarter.
Burlington Central put the game on ice in the second quarter, outscoring the Warriors 15-6 to lead 33-14 at intermission.
The Warriors got an outstanding effort from Andrew Fowler, who scored 20 points with a pair of 3s. Zac Maness added 10 points with two baskets from beyond the arc.