Burlington Central will play for Sycamore crown

Burlington Central's boys basketball team relished the challenge of taking on Sycamore on its home floor.

With a trip to the championship game hanging in the balance, the Rockets smothered a physical Spartans' squad from the outset and led all the way in an impressive 54-42 victory Friday night at the Sycamore Leland G. Strombom Tournament.

The Rockets, 3-0 in tournament play, will take on Rockford Jefferson (3-0) in Saturday's 7:30 p.m. title game.

Senior forward Ryan Fitzgerald led the way for Central with 14 points while sophomore Zach Schutta contributed 13 points and 7 rebounds.

"Sycamore picked us to be in this game so we had to go out and try our best to get to the championship game," Schutta said. "I just put it all out there, hustling every play and trying to make everything on the offensive end."

"They have a lot of football players out there and they bring a lot of intensity. You just have to keep matching it and one-upping them every time they try to make a run," said forward Joey Ratzek, who sparked the Rockets with 11 points off the bench.

The Rockets gave their large and boisterous crowd plenty to cheer about as they took a 12-5 lead after one quarter and pushed it to 26-15 at halftime.

Sycamore made just 5 field goals in the opening half while Shutta had 9 points for the Rockets with Fitzgerald and Luke McCurdy adding 6 points each.

"We played pretty lockdown defense all night," said Central coach Brett Porto. "We were concerned with their height, but we have certain defensive rules in our man-to-man that we just stuck by and executed really well."

Sycamore senior forward Brett Bemis (14 points, 11 rebounds), scored the first two baskets of the third quarter, but the Rockets responded with a driving layup from Shutta and a 3-pointer from TaVontae Harris.

Ratzek heated up with a pair of trifectas and another short baseline jumper as Central extended the lead to 44-27 at the end of the quarter. Sycamore never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

"I just like to bring a lot of energy to the game," Ratzek said. "It's good to get the fans into it in a game like this where it's really competitive in the gym I think big plays like that are a good way to spark up a run."

The Rockets will be looking for their first tournament championship since 1997.

"There have been some great Central teams since that time," Porto said. "To get that opportunity we knew we had to take care of business tonight."

"Jefferson pushes the ball pretty hard, so we're going to have to get back in transition and D-up," Schutta said.