Burlington C. nips Kaneland in OT

The best minute of Burlington Central guard Camille Dela Cruz’s nascent basketball career turned a 2-point deficit into a 49-47 overtime victory against Kaneland on Pack the Place night on Rocket Hill Saturday.

Kaneland (10-6) led 47-45 and held possession in the final minute, but Dela Cruz, playing full-court man-to-man defense, picked off a perimeter pass and broke free for the tying layup with 29 seconds left in overtime.

“We were just looking for steals and trying to tie up the ball so that we didn’t have to foul if we didn’t have to,” Central coach Jenna Real said. “And we’ve got the scrappy kids to not have to foul. That was the plan.”

Dela Cruz topped herself seconds later.

After the Knights missed 2 free throws that would have given them the lead with 18 seconds remaining, Burlington Central (8-9) raced up court without calling timeout. The ball eventually made its way into the hands of Dela Cruz near the 3-point arc with six seconds on the clock.

Though she had scored only 2 points prior to overtime, Dela Cruz didn’t hesitate when she spotted a fissure in Kaneland’s defense.

“I saw an opening,” she explained. “I said, ‘Why not?’”

Dela Cruz drove to the right of the lane, turned near the baseline and scored over a defender as time expired. The buzzer sounded and Dela Cruz was soon enveloped by her elated teammates, all of whom were thrilled to win a game Kaneland led by 11 points in the second quarter.

“It was awesome,’ Dela Cruz said of the dramatic finish. “It was a great opportunity and I just finished it for our team.”

The Knights were stunned by the outcome. They led 13-4 after a quarter and 23-14 at halftime, but 14 second-half turnovers doomed Kaneland.

“We kind of let up in the second half,” said Kaneland guard Sarah Grams. “We didn’t come out with the same intensity as we did in the first half.”

Central opened the second half with a 10-2 run to pull within a point and the game remained tight until the end. The teams traded the lead three times in the fourth quarter, four times in the extra session.

“We just didn’t have it at the beginning but it came out after halftime,” said Central guard Jessica Laird, who led all scorers with 19 points. “(Real) yelled at us and told us we had to step it up because she knew we were better than that.”

“The way we came out in that second half I could tell in their faces that they wanted it,” Real said of her players. “I had the confidence in them. I knew it would be there. It was still making me nervous, but I believed in them and they believed in themselves. And that was the greatest outcome.”

The Rockets took their first lead of the game, 37-36, when junior guard Erica Haynes stole an inbounds pass and converted a layup with 3:27 left in the fourth quarter.

Central led by 2 points until Ashley Prost scored 2 of her team-best 11 points on a low-post bank shot with 22 seconds left. Central nearly won the game in regulation, but Sarah Nelson’s baby hook from the baseline bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

The Knights said they never should have let the game reach overtime.

“I think we kind of let up,” Prost said. “We were making dumb errors, we weren’t attacking them and we let them control the game.”