Burlington Central rolls to another win

While Burlington Central may still be working out a few kinks on offense with its leading scorer Samantha Pryor sidelined to start the season, the Rockets' defense hasn't missed a beat.

For the second night in a row on Wednesday Central held its opponent scoreless in the first quarter. The Rockets went on to score the first 14 points of the game and cruised to a second straight win, 54-26 over Oak Forest in second round action of the Central Thanksgiving Tournament.

Central's pressing defense forced 26 turnovers, including 18 in the first half. Oak Forest didn't score until hitting a free throw with 5:18 left in the second quarter. The Bengals were held without a field goal until 1:40 left in the first half. The Rockets held Oak Forest to just 3-of-14 (21 percent) in the first half.

"Our offense was a little stale against their zone at the start," Central coach Mark Smith said. "So our defense really was our offense at the beginning. The girls love to play aggressive and press. They really get after the ball."

Junior Kayla Ross has stepped up and picked up a lot of the scoring slack in Pryor's absence. Ross had a game-high 19 points. She also spearheaded the defensive effort with 4 steals.

"We stress defense in practice all the time," Ross said. "We came out in a press. That's what we like to do. It gets our intensity going right away. We know on offense without Samantha it is tougher, but we know what we need to do and we are all trying to do our part to get it done."

Ross scored 10 points in the first half to help the Rockets build a 26-10 lead. She connected on all 7 of her shots from the first quarter on, including a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.

"She has been unbelievable," Smith said. "Her game has come so far since just last year. She has always had great quickness and is all over the floor. But she has worked hard on the offensive end and is shooting with a lot more confidence. And she has just scratched the surface of her ability."

The Rockets went on a 10-0 run to start the second half and open a 36-10 margin. Rebecca Gerke fueled the Rockets' offense in the second half, scoring all 12 of her points after the break.

"It all starts with our defense," Gerke said. "I have always been taught to emphasize defense first and the offense will come."

Alison Colby added 7 points and a team-high 9 rebounds for the Rockets. Oak Forest was led in scoring by Maddie Baxa with 11 points.