Elgin makes easy work of Burlington
Once the Elgin boys basketball team got going Saturday night, Burlington Central could do nothing to stop it.
Fortunately for the Maroons, it only took one quarter for them to get their legs underneath them.
Elgin outscored the Rockets by 32 points in the final three quarters to earn a 70-41 nonconference road victory.
“We just had to get our foot moving, our blood pumping,” said Maroons junior Dennis Moore, who scored 7 of his 13 points in the second quarter. “After that happened, we were just rolling.”
Central (11-9) led 14-11 after the first quarter as Ray Hunnicutt hit a 3-pointer as time was running out. The Rockets shot just 5-for-17 in the quarter, but 8 offensive rebounds allowed them to have the lead.
The Maroons (15-5), who went 5-for-14 in the first quarter, got started after a Sam Klein bucket with 6:19 left in the first half gave Central an 18-13 lead. Elgin scored the next 14 points in 2 ½ minutes to open up a 27-18 advantage. Moore scored all 7 of his second-quarter points during the run.
“When we got our legs back under us, we really played well,” Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. “You noticed that from the second quarter on.”
Elgin took a 32-22 lead into halftime and increased it to 17, 42-25, midway through the third quarter. The lead was 24, 52-28, heading into the fourth. Arie Williams hit a pair of 3-pointers to open the fourth and Derek Strohmaier added another as the Maroons took a 33-point lead, 61-28.
“Once they got rolling, we had no one that wanted to step up,” Central coach Brett Porto said.
Williams finished with 13 points for the Maroons. Jordan Dean added 11. Kory Brown had 8 points and 6 rebounds.
Klein led the Rockets with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Hunnicutt added 12 points. No other Rocket player had more than 5. Central shot just 27 percent (16-for-59) and committed 19 turnovers.
“I was frustrated with the mental side of the basketball game,” Porto said. “We let one missed shot turn into two, one turnover turned into two. (There are) just not enough timeouts in the world to stop some of the runs.”