McNutt, Wagner step up, BC blasts Richmond
The Burlington Central boys basketball team took a giant step toward repeating as Big Northern-East champions by thinking outside the box during a 67-38 victory over visiting Richmond-Burton Saturday night.
The Rockets turned a battle between first-place teams into a laugher from the very start by decimating the box-and-one defense R-B had employed so effectively on Jan. 22 to snap Central's 14-game conference winning streak.
The big difference this time? Senior forward Jason Wagner was healthy and productive and guard Jake McNutt was on fire.
Wagner sat out the 45-40 loss in Richmond due to a high-ankle sprain. With R-B (10-11, 5-2) again concentrating on stopping Central leading scorer Mike McCurdy, Wagner, McNutt and the rest of the Rockets did the heavy lifting.
Dan Berg sank a 3-pointer to open the game, Wagner sank a long 2-pointer and a 3-point shot, and McCurdy scored on a layup off a Richmond turnover, staking Central (15-5, 6-1) to a 10-0 lead with 4:23 remaining in the first period.
When Richmond-Burton returned from a timeout, the box-and-one was scrapped.
"My eyes light up against a box-and-one," Wagner said. "It means open shots for me, open shots for Jake, open shots for everyone else.
"Once we started knocking them down they went triangle, then man and they really couldn't stop us, so they went zone (1-2-2)."
But no scheme could slow Central's offense. Wagner scored 3 more baskets in the second quarter to finish the half with 14 points, but McNutt was the second-quarter difference-maker.
The senior guard buried 3-pointers on three straight Central possessions within the span of exactly one minute, all from the same spot on the left wing. His third straight bomb ballooned Burlington's lead to 33-10 with 4:52 to play in the period.
Central sank 17-of-27 shots in the first half (63 percent), including 6 of 8 from beyond the arc to take a 41-18 lead at halftime. Burlington led 61-28 after three quarters.
"It felt great to come out and take them out of (the box and one) as quick as we did," said McNutt, who scored 17 points and sank 5-of-6 from 3-point range. "It's a good feeling because we knew they couldn't handle us in man. So to get them out of that was a real confidence booster and helped us get going as well as we did."
The Rockets didn't clinch the BN-E title with the win, but their 3 remaining conference games are against Marengo, North Boone and Harvard, teams with a combined record of 12-46.
Thus, beating Richmond-Burton as badly as they did was a statement for the Rockets, who strive not only to win the league, but to dominate it.
"Having them beat us once, then to beat them by 30 points the next game? You know the first game was a fluke," Wagner said.
Mike McCurdy scored 13 points for Central.
Harrison Daniels scored 10 points for R-B while Matt Clary added 8 in a losing cause.