Chicago Hope downs Burlington Central

Burlington Central gave up too many easy buckets against Chicago Hope in a 79-73 consolation bracket semifinal loss at the Leland Strombom Tournament at Sycamore Friday.

Hope (1-1) shot 65 percent from the field (35 of 54), led by 6-foot-4 sophomore Willie Conner's 15-of-19 shooting performance. Conner benefitted from Central's lack of defensive rotation, particularly when the Eagles were able to get through the Rockets' half-court trap.

"Our rotations from weak side to ball side no matter what (defense) we were in were horrendous," said Central coach Brett Porto, whose Rockets slipped to 0-2.

"My teammates gave me a lot of looks," Conner said. "We played hard, played smart and came out with the win. The difference was defense and energy."

The teams played toe-to-toe for the first 21/2 quarters, exchanging leads 15 times. But the Eagles broke free from the 16th tie of the game at 52 apiece with a 10-0 run to end the third quarter, a surge they extended to 16-2 in the fourth quarter.

That push by Hope was enough to offset the 34-point performance of Central guard Ray Hunnicutt. The sophomore carried the scoring burden for the Rockets with leading returning scorer Shane Larkin sidelined by an ankle sprain.

"Shane's a big part of our offense, so I needed to step it up and keep us somewhat in the game," Hunnicutt said. "But we kept giving up layups inside. We weren't rotating and we missed shots."

After Central guard Zach Romando (9 points) tied the game at 52 with a 3-pointer with 2:34 left in the third quarter, Conner scored on 3 baseline baskets, Torrance Johnson scored on the third shot of a possession and guard Ike Muzikowski drove the lane to put Hope ahead 62-52 after 24 minutes.

Hunnicutt opened the final period by scoring on a layup after an offensive rebound, but Hope answered with a breakaway layup by freshman guard Jalen James (9 points), a Muzikowski transition basket and a putback by Johnson (18 points) to balloon the lead to 68-54 with 4:38 left in the game.

"We're still choosing at times when to play hard," Porto said. "It's one thing to have a few question marks, but we're not answering any of those questions right now and that's what's difficult.

"We're not applying what is said in timeouts and halftime. We're not applying any of that. We've had two games in which we could have taken advantage of the game in certain spots and it's completely flip-flopped on us, so that's frustrating."

The Rockets will try for their first win of the season against Aurora Christian (0-2) today at 1 p.m.