Burlington Central 65, St. Charles East 63

Sophomore Shane Larkin entered Burlington Central's game against St. Charles East with a chip on his shoulders.

Thirty-two minutes later, he had the entire Burlington Central team on those same shoulders.

Larkin was mobbed by his teammates after he hit the game-winning layup with 2 seconds left in the Rockets' 65-63 victory Thursday night in Burlington.

"We're a little small school out in the middle of nowhere," said Larson, who also sank 2 clutch free throws with 33 seconds left. "We're nobody to them. But obviously we're somebody."

Zach Scott's 3-pointer with 11 seconds remaining tied the game at 63. It was the ninth tie in a back-and-forth game that had 9 lead changes and neither team go ahead by more than 6 points.

But after Scott's 3 the Saints (10-11) lost track of Larkin, who found himself all alone under the Saints' basket. Mike McCurdy found him with about a 40-foot pass, his ninth assist.

"We had two timeouts left but when you have a point guard like Michael you just want to get it in and go in that situation," Burlington Central coach Chris Payne said. "Just a heads-up senior play he made at the end.

"By the way our kids reacted at the end of the game showed how much emphasis we put on tonight. This is the best team we've played this year and the kids were just real excited to beat somebody of that caliber."

Burlington Central (16-5) put itself in position for the win thanks to red-hot shooting from senior Jason Wagner. He scored a season-high 28 points on 7-of-12 shooting from 3-point range.

Trailing 34-30 at halftime, the Rockets scored the first 7 points of the third quarter to take a lead they held for most of the second half.

The Saints' only lead in the fourth quarter came midway through. Brian Lankton, who scored 13 points off the Saints' bench, followed his own missed free throw for a basket. Collin Pryor added 2 free throws to put the Saints ahead 52-49.

Wagner buried a 3-pointer on the Rockets' next possession to tie the game at 52. He followed with a 17-foot jumper, and Burlington Central eventually built its lead back to 61-55 with two minutes left.

Three-pointers by Lankton and Scott tied the game, only to see McCurdy find Larkin for the game-winner.

"Zach Scott had ice in his veins and buried it," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said of the game-tying 3.

"I'll have to look at the film, but I was shocked that guy (Larkin) was standing down there by himself. It was disappointing that it was such a great game that it had to end on a layup."

Kevin Senechalle led St. Charles East with 18 points and 11 rebounds. The Saints lost despite shooting 55 percent from the field (27 of 49), though they struggled at the free throw line, hitting 3 of 9.

"We knew it was one of their biggest games, but they are the 18th ranked team in the Daily Herald, so it was a big game for us, too," Clodi said. "That's why we are disappointed. It got to the fourth quarter and they made one more play than us. I can tell you this, we were never looking past these guys. We knew what kind of team they were."

McCurdy finished with 16 points and Larkin scored 12 to go with 7 rebounds while battling St. Charles East's 6-foot-6, 6-6 and 6-4 front line.

"He (Larkin) really grew up tonight," Payne said. "St. Charles East post players are the best two we've played all year. For a sophomore he really stepped up and had his best game of the year."

Payne said he put this game, next Tuesday's against St. Charles North and in two weeks against Sterling on the schedule to prepare the Rockets for regionals.

"They are three real good teams," Payne said. "Tonight was just like a regional game, you've got to make plays at the end and our kids did, and their kids did, too. Just a real good high school basketball game."