Batavia's athleticism too much for Burlington

Kara Lydon, Sara Fruendt, Natalie Tarter and Melissa Norville are listed at 5-foot-11, 5-10, 5-8 and 5-8, respectively, in Batavia's program.

They looked a lot bigger to Burlington Central coach Wade Maisto, especially while harassing the Rockets into missing their first seven shots and committing 7 turnovers in the first 7 minutes of their nonconference game Thursday night at Batavia.

Batavia jumped to a 10-0 lead at that point on its way to a 43-26 win, the Bulldogs' eighth straight.

"It's the first time we've seen anyone with that kind of wingspan when they've got 6-foot girls out on the perimeter," Maisto said. "They've got some really good athletes, some really good basketball players. They made it real tough for us to do anything."

Batavia (17-2) outscored Burlington Central (12-11) by 8 points in each of the first three quarters - 10-2, 15-7 and 14-6 - to build a 39-15 lead after three quarters.

The Rockets, playing without two of their leading scorers, couldn't recover from the sluggish first quarter.

"Our defense is always strong and it seems like we come out really good in the first quarter all the time," said Batavia center Becca Heimsath, who pulled down 7 rebounds.

Lydon scored all of her game-high 10 points in the first half. Tarter grabbed 7 rebounds, Norville pocketed 5 steals and Fruendt scored 6 points.

Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker gave his bench extended playing time, with baskets by Megan Fitzwater and Karin Baleta providing the final margin. Liz Barnes led the reserves with 8 points.

DeBruycker is glad to see things clicking again after a mini-slump over the holidays. He pointed to several factors for the turnaround.

"A little bit is our senior leadership," DeBruycker said. "After our losses to Rosary and Geneva the team was a little down and we had to step it up and realize we're still a real good team we just have to believe in ourselves. And we started to do that. At the beginning of the run we got a lot of good bench play. We need that too. We're becoming more of a deep team as the run continues. Those two things are going to make us pretty tough.

Burlington played without two starters averaging 14 and 10 points a game, including Taylor Colby. Colby sprained an ankle in practice Monday and is hoping to be back next week.

Jordan Maisto paced the Rockets with 8 points, followed by Rosie Garza's 7.

"First time all year I thought we came out and played not to lose instead of trying to win this game," Wade Maisto said. "It's a whole different mindset. We were playing on our heals."