St. Charles East cruises past Burlington Central

Putting together a near-perfect first half, St. Charles East raced out to a 59-24 lead over Burlington Central at the intermission.

From there, the Saints (7-14) put it on cruise control during Tuesday night's convincing 85-60 nonconference basketball triumph over the Rockets (10-10) in St. Charles.

Senior guard Phil Kohlhagen provided the early offensive spark, scoring 10 of his team-high 15 points during the Saints' 17-0 outburst to begin the contest.

Kohlhagen, who entered the game averaging a little more than 2 points per game, connected on 6 consecutive shots at one point, including three 3-pointers, as the Saints built a 33-12 first-quarter lead.

"All week, I've felt good shooting in practice for some reason," said Kohlhagen, who combined with teammate Tim Russell (14 points) for five 3-pointers in the opening period. "I don't really know why."

However, Saints coach Brian Clodi offered an explanation.

"He said, 'Coach, I've been feeling it this week in practice,'" Clodi said of Kohlhagen. "We've never told one of our kids not to shoot. To his credit, he's worked on it (his shot) and it was pure tonight."

In the second quarter, it was Zach Scott's turn from the outside as the senior guard connected on three straight 3-point attempts, forcing Rockets coach Chris Payne to call his fourth timeout in less than 10 minutes with the Saints on top 42-13.

Scott finished with 14 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals in about two and a half quarters of action.

"Zach has really come on," said Clodi. "He's shooting the ball lights out, Timmy's (Russell) shooting lights out. We can shoot it."

Payne concurred.

"There's not really a whole lot to say," said the Rockets coach. "Right now, they're a lot better than we are. It makes it even worse when they're making shots the way they were tonight."

St. Charles East, which was 9-for-17 from 3-point territory in the first half, finished with 11 3-pointers for the game - the last one coming on a crowd-pleasing shot by senior reserve guard Kirk Gray in the final seconds.

"We've been working on it and the kids believe in it 100 percent," said Clodi. "They understand spacing. When you've got Kevin (Senechalle) as an inside force and you have that correct spacing, you get those open shots."

Senechalle added 10 points, 8 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots while Bryce Barry had 8 points to fuel the Saints' 28-15 bench advantage.

"We had to decide what we were going to take away and tonight we wanted to take away their post play - and they hit jump shots," said Payne.

After starting 0-11, the Saints have suddenly become one of the area's hottest teams, having won 7 of their last 10.

"I'm just so proud of these kids," said Clodi. "Even in our three losses, we controlled our own destiny in the fourth quarter.

"We just want to keep it going."

Mark Mastio led Burlington Central with 16 points.