The night didn’t start too well for Burlington Central, turning the ball over on its first three possessions against visiting McHenry.
The Warriors cashed in all three Rocket miscues for a 6-0 lead.
Pretty much everything went the Rockets’ way after that, though. Central caught up and steadily pulled away for a 59-42 Fox Valley Conference victory on Tuesday at Rocket Hill in Burlington.
The Rockets (14-7, 9-2 FVC) ran their winning streak to eight while avenging an earlier loss to the Warriors (15-8, 6-5). With the win, they pulled within a game of FVC leader Cary-Grove (20-3, 10-1).
Ryan Carpenter was seemingly everywhere with 15 points, five assists, three rebounds and five steals. Bennek Braden added 11 points and Cash Cumpata had 10 for the Rockets.
A 22-1 run bridging halftime left the Rockets in complete control. They led 43-20 after 3-pointers by Cumpata and Carpenter and a pair of free throws by Braden finished off the run.
The Warriors answered with a 7-2 run to make it 43-27 but that was as close as they got.
Dane Currie led McHenry with 11 points and Nathan Ottaway added 9.
“I was very pleased with how we defended, and then we got aggressive offensively after the first couple of minutes of the first,” said Central coach Brett Porto.
Porto had to burn a timeout less than two minutes into the game to settle the Rockets down.
“Sometimes we forget how we’ve been playing lately,” he said. “So it’s just a helpful reminder of what we’ve been doing well, and then we went back to that.”
Central took its first lead at 12-11 on a bucket by Patrick Magan. An Ottaway free throw tied it after one quarter.
It was 21-19 when Carpenter drove the lane and made a reverse layup to ignite the big run. The Rockets scored the last 11 points of the second quarter to lead 32-19 at the half and opened the second with an 11-1 run.
“They imposed their will on us,” said McHenry coach Corky Card. “That was the name of the game. There comes a time when you have to stand up and we did not.”
Magan and Colton O’Neil added seven points apiece for the Rockets, while Declan Wilson finished with six.
Defensively, Central forced the Warriors into 26 turnovers, including 16 in the second half.