Burlington Central routs Genoa-Kingston

It took nearly a quarter and a half for the Genoa-Kingston girls basketball team to score its first points, and Burlington Central took full advantage by outscoring the Cogs 67-9 for a Big Northern East victory in Genoa Saturday afternoon.

Freshman Samantha Pryor finished with 18 points and 7 rebounds for the Rockets, but indicated that it was a team effort and she was just another member of the team.

“I think our team tries very hard and I just love this team so much,” Pryor said. “It’s my position and my responsibility on the team to do that — that’s my job. Everyone works really hard at it, which is what makes us such a good team. They all know what they have to do.”

Head coach Mark Smith indicated that Pryor is just one of many freshmen who play starting minutes on the team, but her role is still evolving.

“We only have two seniors and one junior, but we have a lot of young kids who can play, so we feel like we’re 10 deep,” Smith said. “Samantha is a nice player and she really has some skills, but she’s playing a little out of position right now because we have her at the post, but she really has some guard skills as well. She’s a very versatile player and she had a really nice game today.”

Thanks to 13 turnovers by the Cogs and 6 points each by Shelby Holt and Camille Dela Cruz, the Rockets (4-1) outscored the hosts 24-0 in the first quarter. Tori Hensley scored the Cogs’ first points of the game and the first points of the second quarter with just under five minutes to play in the half, but the Rockets scored 17 unanswered points to lead 41-4 halftime lead. While it was the offense got the credit for the points, the defense forced the Cogs into 11 more turnovers in the second quarter to keep them off the board as well.

Despite having inexperienced varsity players, Smith feels his squad has a lot of depth and promise this year.

“We feel comfortable with all of our girls and we have three or four girls who can hit consistently from 3-point range, so that really helps us as well,” Smith said. “We were able to put some pressure on them and get some turnovers, which created a lot of opportunities for us, so that was good to see. The girls really played hard out there today, which I was pleased to see.”