Burlington Central rolls over Richmond-Burton

The Burlington Central girls basketball team used a strong second half to overwhelm Richmond-Burton 64-34 Tuesday night in the Kishwaukee River Conference opener in Burlington.

The victory extended Central's winning streak to 6 games without a loss.

"A good second half, we only gave up 11 points," said Central coach Mark Smith. "They responded after halftime and we got the ball inside to Kat (Schmidt). She had a really nice second half."

"I think we just need a spark. We went into the locker room pretty frustrated and we knew that we needed to get going," said Central's Zoey Kollhoff. "We came out as a team in the second half and we played really hard together."

Central led R-B by 6 points at the start of the second half, 29-23.

After swapping baskets in the opening minute of the third quarter, Central's defense held R-B scoreless for the next 6 minutes while the offense scored 10 points. When R-B's Madey Abate made a long 2 from the right corner with 58 seconds left in the period, Central had extended its lead to 41-27.

"We just came out flat (in the second half) and Burlington Central is a really good team so we can't do that," said R-B coach Stephanie Oslovich.

Schmidt sparked the spurt by scoring 6 of her game-high 21 points.

Central (6-0, 1-0) defenders continued to keep a lid on R-B's rim by holding the visiting Rockets scoreless during the first 4 minutes of the fourth quarter as the offense continued to roll. By the time Peyton Bannon (10 points) ended R-B's second scoring drought with a putback at the 4:21 mark in the period, Central led 57-32.

Elana Wells (11 points) started Central's fourth quarter scoring with a layup, which was followed by Schmidt's last bucket of the night. Mackenzie West (9 points) scored the team's next 6 points. Kollhoff (10 points) ended the run with her second transition layup.

"I love the energy Zoey and Riley Gardner play with," Smith said. "Hopefully, everyone can pick up on that."

The first half was hard fought with six jump balls called and both teams in the bonus on free throws early in the second quarter. R-B (0-5, 0-1) led in the early going, with Central taking the lead on its last basket of the first quarter, 12-10.

"We had a slow start again. We have got get that figured out for sure," Smith said. "They were more aggressive than us, unfortunately. That's the second game in a row and we've got to fix that."

R-B kept close in the second quarter, pulling within 1 with 2:10 left in the half, 22-21.