Burlington C. hangs on in end

A foul is a terrible thing to waste.

With Kaneland's boys basketball team trailing Burlington Central by 2 points with 7.6 seconds left in Saturday's nonconference game, Knights coach Dennis Hansen instructed his team during a timeout to get the ball inbounded, run upcourt and score as quickly as possible. "Get it and go," he said.

The visiting Knights triggered to senior guard Nick Wagner, who had already scored 21 points, and he raced up court as planned.

But Central had a foul to give and sophomore Matt McCurdy wisely used it at midcourt to halt Wagner's momentum.

On the ensuing inbounds play at midcourt with 3.9 seconds left, Central senior Jason Wagner deflected the entry pass away and time expired as he and Kaneland's Kevin Green scrambled after the loose ball, preserving a 45-43 victory for Burlington Central (9-4).

"I was helping off my man the whole game, but coach (Chris Payne) told us to faceguard that time," said Jason Wagner. "I denied the whole way, saw the ball and just jumped on it."

While the loss goes down as yet another close-but-no-cigar experience in a season littered with nail biters for Kaneland (6-10), the win was a confidence booster for Central, which prevailed despite one of its poorest shooting performances this season.

The Rockets missed their first 13 attempts from 3-point range and shot 26 percent (8 of 30) in the first half. Central shot 33 percent for the game (16 of 49) and connected on just 3-of-20 attempts from long distance overall.

"I don't know how good a team we are, but the mark of a good team is to win a game when you don't play your style," Payne said. "That's what we did."

The Rockets' deficit was merely 22-20 at the half because 6-3 sophomore Shane Larkin kept the game close by scoring 10 of his 12 points and grabbing 6 of his 9 rebounds.

Mike McCurdy, who missed his first 7 shots of the game, scored 7 of his 21 points in the third period to help the Rockets overtake the Knights with a 14-8 third quarter.

Kaneland's Nick Wagner tied the game at 42 with a short, pull-up jumpshot with 1:36 left in the game, but Mike McCurdy was fouled on a drive and sank 2 free throws with 1:09 left.