Boys basketball: Burlington Central steals win from Schaumburg
It’s still the holiday season, but Burlington Central wasn’t in the mood for giving Friday morning at the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic.
They were more interested in taking away.
The Rockets had nine steals in the first half against Schaumburg, three alone in the second quarter by junior guard Cedric Ceniza, in a 57-27 victory over the Saxons.
As a matter of fact, Burlington Central played a near-perfect second quarter. They outscored Schaumburg 14-0, helped along by a stifling full-court press. The Saxons didn’t help their cause by going 0-for-8 at the free throw line in the second stanza.
“As a unit we played really well together today,” said Ceniza. “I think we wanted it more. We had a little extra juice in us.”
Central’s 6-6 junior forward Patrick Magan, who tallied a game-high 17 points, said it was a recent 62-49 loss to Lake Park that pushed his team forward Friday.
“Our coach (Brett Porto) put us through some really good practices,” said Magan. “We knew we had to come out and compete hard today. We needed to come together as a team, and we did that.”
Six-6 senior forward Cam Anderson played a solid game for Schaumburg with a team-high 10 points and six rebounds, and the Saxons did put a little bit of a run together in the third quarter.
Overall, though, Schaumburg coach Jason Tucker indicated that it was certainly a less-than-memorable game for his squad.
“We talked (after the game) about just flushing this one,” said Tucker. “That’s all we can do. We got beat in every single facet of the game.
“It’s tough. I didn’t think something like this would happen to us this year. But credit to them (Burlington Central) — they were great, and we weren’t.”
Schaumburg (7-4) opened up with an early lead, but Burlington Central (6-3) rallied and grabbed an 18-9 advantage after one quarter, helped along by two 3s by junior guard Ryan Carpenter.
The Rockets took a 32-9 lead into intermission after the stellar second stanza.
The Saxons went on an 8-2 run midway through quarter number three, with Ray Black and Tony Horton getting buckets.
Then Magan and Brady Andersen hit 3-pointers early in the fourth for Burlington Central to lead the Rockets to the win.
Black finished with six points for Schaumburg, and they’ll now move on in the tournament consolidation round to face Wheaton Academy at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Senior guard Aiden Patterson said the Saxons will shake this one off and look to make their mark the rest of the tourney.
“We had a lot of mental lapses today,” said Patterson. “I believe that wasn’t a real showing of what Schaumburg basketball is.
“It was out of character for us, certainly. We won’t let this happen again. Tomorrow we’re going to come back and fight our way through the (consolation) bracket.”
Declan Wilson scored 8 points for the Rockets, Carpenter pitched in with 6, while Tyler Kotwica and Andersen tallied 5 apiece.
Burlington Central advances to play St. Laurence at 3:45 p.m. Saturday in the championship bracket.
After the contest, Magan of the Rockets was able to reflect on how well his team played on the defensive end — especially in the eight minutes before halftime.
“I didn’t even realize how good our team defense was in that second quarter,” he said. “And really, the whole game. When we play together like this, we’re awfully hard to beat.”