McHenry toughs one out against Burlington Central

McHENRY – McHenry’s boys basketball team rarely loses. Not games. Not its toughness.

Tuesday night, the Warriors seemingly lost their grit and, as a result, they almost lost their Fox Valley Conference showdown against Burlington Central.

That’s what muscular Conner McLean, maybe the toughest Warrior, thought after McHenry outlasted Central for the second time this season, prevailing 64-57 in overtime to move another step closer to winning the FVC championship.

McHenry (21-3, 13-0) led by 17 points early in the second half, only to watch the Rockets storm back and take a two-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

“I think we lost our toughness,” McLean, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, said after coming off the bench to score 12 points, including a bucket in OT, and grab eight rebounds. “Our coach preaches being tough all the time and being the toughest team in the conference, and I think at one point we all thought [the game] was over.”

McHenry’s Caleb Jett had a game-high 27 points (nine in OT) and six rebounds, and Dylan Hurckes added 14 points for the Warriors, who had their nine-game winning streak snapped Saturday against New Trier and were seeking to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time this season. Jett finished off the game with a breakaway layup after McLean grabbed a rebound and heaved a pass downcourt.

McHenry outscored Central 14-7 in OT after McLean just missed a floater and putback of his own miss in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter.

“Our whole practice is conditioning,” McLean said. “We run up and down [the court] all two hours of practice every day. We try to be the most conditioned team out there.”

Jake Johnson scored 19 of his team-high 21 points in the second half for Central (18-8, 9-4). Rockets coach Brett Porto pulled his veteran forward at the five-minute mark of the second quarter after watching Johnson do little. Johnson, who was 1 of 4 from the floor in the first half before going 6 of 15 in the second half and grabbing eight of his nine rebounds, understood.

“I had four turnovers, no offensive rebounds, no points,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t doing anything. I was just hurting us. Defensively I wasn’t doing much either. The second half I started to get downhill. I just got to play with more confidence.”

Trailing 36-19 after Jett scooped in a shot with 6:39 left in the third quarter, Central rallied, closing the quarter with a 21-4 run. Johnson scored 11 points in the quarter, and his three-point play with 32.8 seconds left pulled the visitors even at 40-40 entering the fourth.

When Johnson scored in the lane eight seconds into the fourth, Central had its first lead.

“When you challenge a four-year [varsity] player for you, that’s how you love to see him respond,” Porto said. “He stepped up big for us and got aggressive. Hopefully he plays like that for us down the stretch.”

Patrick Magan, Central’s 6-5 sophomore, split two free throws with 14.1 seconds left to tie the score at 50-50.

“We didn’t do anything in the first half,” Johnson said. “We were slow. We just sat there, and they ran it down our throats. The second half we turned the momentum and completely flipped the game.”

Central helped force McHenry into 20 turnovers, including 12 after halftime.

“We just finally got back to a little bit of Central basketball – all five guys playing defense as hard as they can,” Porto said. “We caused some turnovers, which got us going, and then we started getting the ball to the middle, which helped get us some layups and open up interior looks, and a few shots finally fell from the outside.”

Magan and Patrick Shell each finished with 13 points for the Rockets, who missed a last-second shot and lost to McHenry 68-67 on Dec. 13 in Burlington.

McHenry is 2-0 in OT games this season and 6-0 in games decided by six or fewer points. Warriors coach Corky Card said he thinks the players' familiarity with each other going back to elementary school has helped them keep their composure and trust in each other down the stretch in games.

“The kids have been together for a long time,” Card said. “They all played at the same middle school, so it’s nice when you get kids that have played that long together.”