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Burlington Central avenges Johnsburg loss, takes KRC lead

Burlington Central took control of the Kishwaukee River Conference race Thursday night, something that had to feel like a bit of a pipe dream back on Dec. 12.

On that night the Rockets' girls basketball team traveled to defending conference champion Johnsburg and lost by 28 points.

A lot of has changed since for both teams. Johnsburg lost Kayla Stefka and Morgan Madsen to injuries, the two combining for 32 points in that first meeting.

The Rockets were ready for the rematch Thursday, playing in front of a big home crowd on the second annual Orange for Lisa34 night, in memory of Lisa Pryor, who lost a battle with cancer two years ago and was a big part of the Burlington Blast feeder program.

Burlington Central used 16-2 and 14-0 runs in the first half to build a 30-14 halftime lead on the way to a 55-40 victory that gives it the KRC lead.

"When the other Madsen went down, we felt this was our chance, let's take advantage of this," Rockets coach Mark Smith said. "They are trying to figure out who their second scorer is going to be. We did a nice job. I thought we played well, shot the ball OK."

Burlington Central (20-3, 8-1) has three conference games left and can win the title outright by sweeping those.

Freshman Elana Wells led the Rockets in scoring with 17 points and sophomore Kathryn Schmidt was right behind with 16.

"We knew we had to come out strong, play aggressive, keep our composure," Wells said. "Reilli (Gardner) did a good job on 4 (Megan Madsen). We didn't let her get to the basket. Our defense was really tight today."

Johnsburg (15-11, 8-2) scored the first 5 points for its only lead of the night. Schmidt's jumper got the Rockets on the board and Mackenzie West followed with a runner. Schmidt's 2 free throws put the Rockets ahead for good at 6-5, and the lead stood at 13-7 after the first quarter on Zoey Kollhoff and Gardner's back-to-back steals they took the other way for breakaway layups in the final 30 seconds of the quarter.

Liliana Moretti opened the second quarter with a corner 3. In the 16-0 run that pushed the lead to 30-12, Schmidt began and ended it with 3-point shots, West scored on a putback, Wells had another fastbreak layup after West deflected a pass, and Schmidt and Madelyn Menke both made 2 free throws.

"They started out really well, really good defense and we needed to handle that pressure a little bit better," said Megan Madsen, who led Johnsburg with 17 points.

Trailing 30-14 at halftime and 43-22 after three quarters, Johnsburg did cut into the lead in the fourth quarter. But it was too little, too late on a night the Rockets held the Skyhawks to 33 percent shooting (12 for 36), forced 16 turnovers and outrebounded them 30-25 led by West and Wells with 6 boards and Schmidt with 5.

West added 7 points and Kollhoff scored 6 to send all the fans in orange - Lisa Pryor's favorite color - home happy, including her daughters Sam and Sydney.

"We invite all the feeder programs to come and it's a way to honor her," Smith said of Lisa Pryor, who passed away two years ago. "Hopefully we take care of business now and win the conference."

Kaitlyn Owen chipped in 8 points for Johnsburg.

"We have just had all this adversity this year and it's hard because the players we're using don't have a lot of varsity experience," Johnsburg coach Ashley Arff said. "I told the girls even if we didn't have Kayla tonight, we didn't have Morgan tonight, I truly think we could have beat them if we had more intensity and belief in themselves. Because some of those kids looked like deer in headlights."

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