Marengo dumps Burlington Central

The numbers don't usually lie, and they were all in favor of Marengo Friday night.

The visiting Indians shot better, both from the floor and the free-throw line, and proved to be more athletic than Burlington Central as they handed the Rockets a 57-46 loss in a Big Northern East girls basketball game on Rocket Hill.

But the number that really stands out is a single digit: 4. That's the number of points the Indians (12-6, 5-0) held BC junior guard Jordan Maisto to, 10 below her average.

"We had two girls (Hallisey Kunde and Amanda Hart) rotating on her the whole night," said Marengo coach Todd Price. "Our goal was to make her tired and by the end of the game she had her hands on her knees, so we did a good job."

Burlington Central coach Wade Maisto gave credit where credit was due.

"They never gave Jordan an easy look," he said. "They just never took a girl off her. They're a good athletic team. They scrapped for rebounds and they took the ball to the basket on us."

The Rockets (11-10, 3-3) never could get an offensive flow going with Jordan Maisto being shut down. Senior Molly Turk led the way for BC with 15 points and junior Taylor Colby added 14, but Central shot just 21-for-58 (36 percent) from the field and an anemic 2-for-12 from the line. Meanwhile Marengo, which has a first-place showdown at home against Hampshire on Tuesday, was 17-for-41 from the field and 21-for-32 from the line.

The Indians used a 7-2 run over the final 3:15 of the first half to take a 28-23 lead into the break and maintained that advantage through the third quarter, never allowing Central closer than 3 points.

Down 48-40 with 4:31 left in the game, BC did close to within 48-44 after a putback by Alli Settanni (8 points, 8 rebounds) but Marengo went on a 9-2 run to close out the game.

"This one's a disappointment," Wade Maisto said. "They were more athletic than us tonight and they had a good game plan."

Jenna Overlee led the Indians with 21 points, while Melanie DiPuma added 11 and Kunde 10.

Turk played a strong all-around game for the Rockets with 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block, while Colby pulled down 8 rebounds and had 3 assists. Jordan Maisto contributed 4 assists and 3 steals.

"Even though she didn't score much she's still involved in their offense and they put some points up even without her scoring," Price said. "But we did do a nice job of shutting her down."