BC's Colby strikes for 31

When Burlington Central junior Taylor Colby gets in the zone -her scoring zone - she can be awfully tough to stop.

Colby was in that zone Tuesday night, scoring a career-high 31 points as the Rockets held off Richmond-Burton 62-52 in a Big Northern East girls basketball game on Rocket Hill.

"I didn't even realize," smiled Colby when told she scored 31 points. "I was just really on and it was fun."

"On" was certainly the correct word for Colby's play Tuesday. She scored 18 of her points in the first half on 8-of-10 shooting as the Rockets (7-8, 1-1), playing for the first time since Dec. 22, won their third straight game.

Both teams showed the rustiness of the Christmas break as neither squad scored until Colby made a free throw with 4:20 left in the first quarter. But from that point, the host Rockets went on a roll, using two 3-pointers from Jordan Maisto and one from Molly Turk to open up a 21-10 lead at the end of the quarter.

"All of a sudden everything started falling into place," said Colby, who added 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals to her night.

Burlington Central led 36-16 at halftime before Richmond (4-10, 2-1) came clawing back. The visiting Rockets outscored Central 18-11 in the third quarter and cut the BC lead to 47-36 early in the fourth. But Central picked its game up and went on a 15-5 run that stretched the lead to 62-41 after a Maisto 3-pointer with 3:05 to play, when both coaches emptied their benches.

"It was a nice way to start the second half of the season. We didn't shoot well in the Christmas tournament but I thought we shot well tonight," said BC coach Wade Maisto, whose team was 25-of-58 for the game, including 15-of-28 in the first half.

The Rockets' coach was happy to see Colby have another strong scoring game.

"Taylor finishes well," Maisto said. "She takes the ball to the basket strong and she had an outstanding game tonight."

The Rockets also got 16 points, including four 3-pointers, from Jordan Maisto (4 steals, 3 assists) and 13 points, 4 assists and 3 blocks from Turk, who said her ailing back has returned to 100 percent healthy again. Her defense, as well as that of sophomore Alli Settanni, helped cause 22 Richmond turnovers. The visiting Rockets shot just 17-of-47 for the night.

Erin Beyer and Hailey Schleibinger led Richmond with 14 points each and junior Bree Roberts scored 10 off the bench.