Johnsburg hands Burlington Central first loss

It was second and fourth quarters Burlington Central girls basketball coach Mark Smith would like to forget ever happened.

Host Johnsburg, which outscored the visiting Rockets 32-1 in those quarters, cruised to a 52-23 victory in Kishwaukee River Conference action Tuesday night.

It was the Rockets' (8-1, 3-1) first loss of the season.

"You can't score 1 point in two quarters and expect to beat a team the caliber of Johnsburg," said Smith. "We came out in the second half and played well in the third quarter. We just ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. We live and die with the 3 but we need to be more patient on offense and try to get easier shots."

Trailing the Skyhawks (7-3, 4-1) 13-8 after 1 quarter, Central missed all 10 shots it took in the second quarter including 6 from 3-point range and was outscored 13-0 to trail 26-8 at intermission.

Kayla Stefka scored 11 of the Skyhawks' 13 points in the quarter including a trey.

The Rockets came out of the locker room red hot connecting on 3 consecutive shots in scoring the first 8 points to cut the Johnsburg lead to 26-16 with 5:43 left. Kathryn Schmidt canned a pair of 3-pointers and Mackenzie West scored on a putback during the 8-0 surge.

The closest the Rockets got was 28-20 after a layup by Schmidt with 1:29 left in the third quarter.

Leading by 10, 32-22, after 3 quarters, Johnsburg seized control of the game scoring the first 10 points of the fourth quarter and took a 41-22 lead with 5:08 left in the game.

Morgan Madsen scored 6 points and Stefka 4 as the Skyhawks made their first 5 shots of the quarter.

Central's only point of the quarter came on a free throw by West to make the score 41-23 with 4:22 left in the game. Johnsburg scored the final 10 points of the in recording a 28-point victory.

Central, 2-of-15 from 3-point range for 13 percent, was led by Schmidt with 11 points including a pair of 3s.

Stefka, Morgan and Megan Madsen combined for 45 of Johnsburg's 51 points.

Stefka, connecting on 6-of-8 from the floor led the way with 19 points and 9 rebounds. Morgan and Megan Madsen added 13 apiece for the winners.

"Johnsburg has a very good team and they played very well." said Smith. "Their defense was very good and they forced us to shoot outside and they also were able to get easy shots and layups from their defense.