Burlington Central's pressure stops Kaneland

Frustrating an opponent can bring a smile to a basketball player's face.

Burlington Central had plenty of reasons to smile Saturday night.

The Rockets' pressure and aggressive defense frustrated Kaneland all night, especially in the second quarter, and they used that to beat the Knights, 65-51, in nonconference action at Central.

"Our ability to apply pressure and recover out of it (made the difference)," Central coach Brett Porto said. "We limited them to one shot. Then some guys knocked down open shots."

After a Taylor Andrews basket a minute into the second quarter gave Kaneland (9-4) a 17-14 advantage, the Knights wouldn't score again until there was 1:41 left in the half.

Central (6-8) went on a 13-0 run to take a 27-17 lead, which included hitting a 3-pointer on the possession given to it after a technical foul on Kaneland coach Brian Johnson. The Rockets led 29-20 at halftime. Kaneland shot 2 of 9 in the second and committed 8 turnovers.

"They were real aggressive. They forced us to play away from our style of basketball," Johnson said. "We made some really poor decisions, some really poor turnovers. They capitalized on it,"

The Rockets extended the lead to as many as 12 in the third quarter and led 43-35 heading to the fourth. Kaneland got within 5, 45-40, after a Chaon Denlinger 3-pointer with 6:30 left in the fourth, but could not get any closer.

A bright spot for the Knights was senior center Dave Dudzinski scoring his 1,000th point in the third quarter. He entered the game with 996 points and scored 11. He also grabbed 15 rebounds.

Denlinger led Kaneland with 20 points, 13 in the fourth quarter. Steve Colombe added 13.

Shane Larkin scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half for the Rockets. Sam Klein added 17, including going 8-for-11 from the free-throw line in the fourth. Tim Sullivan finished with 11.

"Matt McCurdy was doing a great job penetrating. Dudzinski was helping on him and I was getting open looks," Larkin said.