Rockets victims of Kaneland depth

Burlington Central reckoned it would have a difficult time matching up with the height of the Kaneland boys basketball team.

What the Rockets didn't anticipate was having to find an answer for the Knights' depth.

The Knights received 39 points and 14 rebounds from their bench and buried Burlington Central 65-51 in nonconference action in Maple Park on Saturday.

Kaneland (7-6) was led in scoring and rebounding by 6-foot-9 center Dave Dudzinski (16 points, 7 rebounds), but their next two biggest scorers were Mike Pritchard (11 points) and Ryan Blake (10 points), both of whom came off the bench.

"I don't know who our top five are, so whoever is hot we try to ride them," Kaneland coach Dennis Hansen said. "The guys coming off the bench for us tonight did a great job and we played great team basketball."

Leading 16-15 early in the second quarter, Kaneland started to open the game up with an 8-0 run highlighted by a pair of buckets by both Dudzinski and 6-foot-7 Christian Dillon.

"We started getting the momentum going and then the crowd got into it," Dillon said. "It's awfully tough when you're on the other end of that momentum."

Burlington Central (6-6) quieted the crowd on a Sam Klein 3-pointer, but the Knights closed out the quarter by outscoring the Rockets 11-3 to take a comfortable 35-21 lead at the half.

Blake accounted for 8 of those 11 points as he hammered home a 3-pointer and laid in a couple of baskets in a 50-second span.

"The adrenaline just gets you going there," Blake said. "You just go off of that and make your plays."

"When we play a good team and it matters we just don't make shots," Burlington Central coach Chris Payne said. "When you're not as big (as Kaneland) you've got to make perimeter jumpers and we didn't. We dug ourselves a big hole there and that's why."