Burlington cruises past Harvard

Two minutes into the game, Burlington Central trailed Harvard, 7-3. The Rockets proceeded to score the next 18 points and never looked back, cruising to a 71-41 Big Northern East boys basketball victory Saturday in Burlington.

Shane Larkin had 25 points and 7 rebounds for Central (9-7, 3-2). Ray Hunnicutt and Mark Mastio added 17 and 13 points, respectively. Matt McCurdy had 6 assists, and Jeff Rau chipped in with 5 points.

But Larkin was the player of the game. He scored 9 points in the first quarter as the Rockets took a 23-11 lead.

"He's a tough matchup because he can play inside and out," said Central coach Chris Payne. "He can score in a lot of different ways."

The Rockets' press forced 22 Hornet turnovers and fueled the fastbreak at the other end.

"The defense created a lot of our offense," said Payne. "We were able to get the game going and it was at a pace that we wanted it to be at. I think everything we did tonight offensively came off of the defense."

"Our press really sped them up and we got a lot of turnovers off it," Larkin said. "The guards were doing a good job. (The Hornets) couldn't handle the pressure tonight and we capitalized on all the turnovers."

The Hornets rallied briefly when Jordan Gardner hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start the third quarter. That got Harvard within 9 at 39-30. But after a timeout, the Rockets outscored Harvard 12-2 the rest of the quarter. Larkin and Hunnicutt scored all 12 points for Central, and the Hornets' only points came on 2 free throws following a technical foul.

Harvard started the fourth quarter with 5 straight points, but Larkin and Hunnicutt responded by scoring all the points in an 8-0 run to put the game out of reach.

Chase Blazier scored 21 points for Harvard, but had just 5 after halftime. Central held the Hornets to just 17 total points in the second half.