CARPENTERSVILLE – It wasn’t easy.
But, when the last basketball was bounced, Burlington Central moved to 20-3 overall and a perfect 11-0 in the Fox Valley Conference with a hard-fought 47-38 victory over Dundee-Crown in league play Tuesday night.
“It was a very physical game and we knew it would be a tough game,” Burlington Central coach Brett Porto said. “They (D-C) battled Huntley to four overtimes and have been playing well. We knocked down our free throws at the end.”
The Rockets scored the final six points of the game on 6-of-6 free-throw shooting — four by Zac Schmidt and two from Gavin Sarvis,
The Chargers (13-6, 7-4), who trailed the entire game, got within 41-38 on a putback from Kennon Cook with 1:44 remaining. Those would be the last points D-C would score in the game.
The Rockets’ biggest lead was 41-29 on a 3-pointer in the left corner by Trestan Wagner with 5:07 left in the game.
Nick Carpenter, with a 5-of-5 effort from the free-throw line, led a balanced attack with 10 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
“It was a very physical game,” Carpenter said. “We knew it would be. We have to get back to practice and get better if we want to get to where we want to be.”
Andrew Scharnowski (4 assists, 4 blocked shots, 8 rebounds), Schmidt (6 of 6 from the line, a 3-pointer, 7 rebounds, 3 assists) and Sarvis (a 3-pointer, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) each scored nine points for the winners.
Cook had a monster night for the Chargers with 16 points, 17 rebounds, three blocked shots and three assists.
Zach Ryza backed Cook with nine points, six rebounds and three assists.
“He (Cook) is a tough matchup,” Porto said. “He really crashes the boards and is very physical. You have to box him out.”
The Chargers only connected on 13 of 23 from the free-throw line for 56%, committed 13 turnovers and missed eight layups.
“Our free-throw shooting really hurt us and we missed a lot of easy shots,” Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber. said “We did a good job of getting to the free-throw line. We had good shots and good looks. We had a lot of good opportunities to score. Burlington Central is a very good team.”