Centre boys squeak by Bennington
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Centre High School boys chalked up two wins during the past week on their home court.
The game Dec. 14 between Centre and Bennington was a thriller. The close contest resulted in a one-point 62-61 win for Centre.
Tied 17-all at the end of the first quarter, the two teams continued to battle it out in the second.
The Cougars fell behind by five points, 22-27, in the middle of the quarter, but Dustin Burnett hit a three, then stole the ball for a lay-up to tie the game, 27-27.
Bennington answered with five points of their own, which, after a basket by Seth Jirak, gave the Bulldogs a three-point lead going into the break.
Bennington opened the third quarter with a field goal to increase their lead to five. But Centre came back with 12 unanswered points to jump ahead seven points, 41-34.
The Bulldogs came within two points in the final minute and a half of the quarter, but Centre added five points to lead, 46-41.
Bennington scored four three-pointers in the fourth quarter to keep the Bulldogs in the game, but it remained close on good shooting by Burnett and help from Andrew Hajek and Jirak.
Bennington's final three-pointer was made with 1:16 remaining, to put the Bulldogs ahead, 60-59. Jirak fouled out with less than a minute remaining, and Bennington added a free throw for a two-point lead.
To the delight of the crowd, with six seconds remaining, Burnett made a basket from outside the circle to give Centre the lead. Bennington failed in its final scoring attempt, and the Cougars won, 62-61.
Burnett led Centre's scoring with 21 points, and was aggressive at the boards with one offensive and seven defensive rebounds. He stole the ball five times.
Jirak scored 17 points and had six rebounds. Remy also was in double digits with 10 points for a perfect four-of-four from the floor, two from three-point range. He stole the ball four times.
The junior varsity was defeated, 63-33. The Cougars scored four points in each of the first two quarters compared to 17 and 12 by Bennington, to give the Bulldogs a 29-8 halftime lead.
Centre outscored Bennington 17-9 in the third quarter but the Bulldogs added 23 in the last quarter compared to eight by Centre to win by 30 points.
Kevin Mueller and Thieen Antoszyk scored 10 points each, followed by Lance Diepenbrock with six. Bryant Brunner added four, Alfonse Klenda two, and Matt Leach one.
Wakefield
Friday's game against Wakefield resulted in a 69-57 victory for the Cougars.
The boys failed to score until almost halfway into the first quarter, when Seth Jirak completed a free throw and then scored a three-pointer to tie the game at 4-4.
Wakefield pulled ahead by five points until Justin Garrard scored two consecutive field goals at the end of the quarter, leaving Centre trailing by one point, 10-11.
Garrard scored another field goal as the second quarter opened to give the Cougars the lead for good. They led 30-23 at halftime.
Centre outscored Wakefield 18-11 in the third quarter, including a three-pointer by Bryant Gutsch and another by Dustin Burnett. At the end of the quarter, they led 48-34.
Jirak sunk three three-pointers in the last quarter, contributing nine of 21 points for Centre, and the Cougars won by 12 points.
The team shot 40.3 percent from two-point range and sunk eight of 18 or 44.4 percent from three-point range. They made 50 percent of their free throws.
Jirak was high-point man with 18 points, followed by Garrard with 16, and Burnett with 10. Burnett also had eight rebounds, turned the ball over seven times, and stole it four times.
Going into the Christmas break, the team is 3-3 overall and 2-0 in the Eisenhower League.
The junior varsity was defeated by Wakefield, 56-39. They were ahead 10-8 in the first quarter, but scored only four and five points in the second and third quarters to trail 19-43.
They outscored Wakefield 20-13 in the final quarter but it was too little, too late.
Kevin Mueller was Centre's leading scorer with 16 points. Alfonse Klenda scored nine and Lance Diepenbrock seven.
