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Burlington Central downs Marengo

For much of the first half, Burlington Central trailed Marengo. But when the Rockets stepped up their defense in the second half, things turned around in a hurry.

Central used an 18-3 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to blow past the Indians, 41-35 in Kishwaukee River Conference girls basketball action in Burlington Thursday night.

Marengo led 26-21 early in the second half. But a bucket by Kathryn Schmidt started a run of 9 straight points that put the Rockets (11-9, 6-2) ahead to stay. They eventually extended the lead to 39-29 by mid-fourth quarter.

The Rockets' pressure defense made the difference.

"We put some pressure on the backcourt," said Central coach Mark Smith. "We've got some new kids, two kids that were playing on the sophomore team, and we weren't quite sure if we could run it the whole game. But in the second half we put pressure on the ball and they made some mistakes."

Hannah Overmyer and Reilli Gardner took turns guarding the Indians' top threat, Marissa Knobloch, and held her to 10 points.

Offensively, it was a breakout game for Madalyn Drescher, who scored a career-high 10 points.

"The player of the game has got to be Maddie Drescher," Smith said. "It was her best offensive game and she eliminated turnovers. We keep telling her to stop thinking so much. I think a few times she just shot the ball without thinking and it went in."

Drescher, Schmidt (14) and Mackenzie West (12) accounted for 36 of the Rockets' 41 points. West also grabbed 8 rebounds as the Rockets won the battle of the boards, 21-17.

Knobloch was the only Indian in double figures although she didn't score in the fourth quarter.

Central led 10-6 after one quarter, but the Indians opened the second quarter with 7 straight points to go up 13-10. Marengo led 20-16 when Drescher nailed a 3-pointer just before halftime to give the Rockets some momentum going into the break.

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