CL Central ends it for Burlington
In a season that some could say Burlington Central overachieved, one thing above all else hurt the Rockets on the nights they lost games.
Size.
Because BC didn’t have much.
And a lot of other teams did.
One of those teams is Crystal Lake Central, which used its decided height advantage to the max Tuesday night to end the Rockets’ season, 75-52, in the semifinals of the Class 3A Hampshire boys basketball regional.
“We watched a lot of film on them but out there it’s our 6-foot guards guarding their 6-5 post men,” said BC senior Sam Klein, who finished his stellar Rocket career with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals.
“Their height advantage was too much for us but that’s the way it’s been all year.”
Klein was a couple inches short on his assessment of one of the Tigers’ post men, and the other one played like he was taller than his listed height.
Matt Gleixner, CL Central’s 6-foot-7 center, scored 15 points and was a beast inside with 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. But the player who really burned the Rockets was 6-2 senior Joe Pijanowski, who had game highs of 21 points and 12 rebounds.
“Give credit to Crystal Lake Central. They played physical,” said BC coach Brett Porto, whose team finished his second season as varsity coach 16-11. “They were a better team tonight.”
The top-seeded Tigers (23-4), who will play Marmion in Friday’s championship game, bolted out to a 16-4 lead late in the first quarter and even thought the Rockets got to within 1 midway through the second period, the Tigers used another 16-4 run to grab a 34-21 halftime lead. BC got to within 7 once early in the third quarter but by the end of the third, a 14-2 run made it 53-33 Tigers, who then led by as many as 28 in the fourth quarter.
BC’s biggest problem, other than CLC’s bigs, was it’s inability to knock down a shot. The Rockets were a woeful 22 of 73 (30 percent) on the night. CL Central, meanwhile, was a cool 30 of 60, with the large majority of their shots coming from within 10-12 feet of the basket.
“When your tallest guy is 6-1 you want to play fast,” said Porto. “When we closed the gap we tried to go too fast. When we’re not shooting the basketball well it makes it tough. I knew we’d have to make shots from the perimeter to make it close.”
Senior Tim Sullivan and junior Ray Hunnicutt had 8 points each for the Rockets, who earned their coach’s admiration this season.
“For these seniors to go 16-11 in my second year, it’s a step up from last year,” said Porto, whose sophomore program won the Big Northern East title this season.
“This is a special group for me. I came in as their sophomore coach and they’ve worked so hard. It’s just been a great group of kids.”
Klein, who now turns his attentions to his chosen sport, baseball (he will play college ball at North Central) handed the credit back to Porto, a BC grad himself.
“It reflects on our coach,” said Klein of the winning season. “We had a lot of heart and we used what we had. We used our speed and our athleticism and it was a fun year.”