Burlington Central hangs on to beat Johnsburg

A funny thing happened as Burlington Central was about to blow Johnsburg out of the gym: the Skyhawks decided to stick around and make things interesting.

After trailing by 20 points in the fourth quarter, Johnsburg got within 7 with 21 seconds to play, forcing Central coach Brett Porto to bring his starters back in. The Rockets quickly righted the ship and held on for a 57-48 victory in Big Northern East boys basketball action at Burlington Friday night.

Zach Schutta scored 15 points and Ryan Fitzgerald added 10 for the Rockets (10-14, 5-5).

The Rockets led 55-37 after a free throw by Drew Wiss (8 points), but the Skyhawks went on an 11-0 run Michael Shelton scored 12 of his team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter to lead the rally.

After Shelton's 3-pointer made it 55-48, the Rocket starters quickly returned to the game. Schutta was fouled and made 2 free throws for the final margin.

"They kept battling," said Porto of the Skyhawks. "A few too many turnovers and easy shots on that end for them. Kind of a recipe to let them back in it at the end. You'd like to finish games a little better, that's for sure."

The Rockets were impressive, especially on the defensive end, in building the big lead. They held the visitors to 5 second-quarter points while taking a 26-14 halftime lead.

"We thought we did some nice things defensively tonight," said Porto. "We could have been a little bit cleaner on transition on our end, but then in the second half we did a good job of attacking the zone on different levels."

A 3-pointer by Stefan Jochum capped an 8-0 run to make it 38-20 midway through the third quarter. Central extended the lead to 50-30 in the fourth quarter before Johnsburg started chipping away.

Tanner Kreassig added 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Skyhawks, who had a 26-20 advantage on the boards. Central's leading rebounder was 5-foot-6 Ta Vontae Harris with 4.