By Mike Ramczyk
Burlington boys basketball head coach Steve Berezowitz tries to ignore records.
As any humble coach would, he downplayed the topic when asked why the Demons are 3-0 and appear to be one of the top three teams in the Southern Lakes Conference.
Why jinx a good thing?
With their aggressive, trapping defense along with tenacious full-court pressure, Burlington hounded host Elkhorn for 32 minutes of hell Friday night.
The result was a 59-44 victory where the Demons were in full control the entire way and a new star may have emerged.
While the household names of Frankie Hozeska, Nathaniel Sibley, Brad Burling and Mitch Klug did their part, it was the actions of a freshman that stole the show.
Point guard Nick Klug, all 5-foot-10 and maybe 150 pounds of him, paced the Demon attack with 16 points, including three triples, wreaked havoc defensively and ran the offense like a well-oiled machine.
“Nick did some really nice things,” Berezowitz said. “It takes the pressure off him when you have guys around him that also can handle and relieve pressure.”
“I thought the energy that Mitch Klug and Brad Burling brought helped all of our guys against Elkhorn.”
Burlington is off to its first 3-0 start in six years (’07-08), and it is doing it with defense. Opponents have only averaged 43 points per game, and the Demons have won both SLC contests by double digits.
Berezowitz said it’s still early, and records don’t mean too much in December.
“We try not to look at our record,” he said. “If we do the job, the record will take care of itself. We are really concentrating on where we are and where we want to be a few months from now.”
The Demons’ biggest strength has been its impressive depth. The team is roughly 10 players deep, and several of their bench guys could start on any team in the SLC.
The boys have had a different leading scorer in each game (Hozeska, Eric Johnson, Nick Klug), and five players average more than 8 points per contest (Hozeska, N. Klug, M. Klug, Sibley, Johnson).
Kinks are still being worked out. Burlington has only scored 50 or more points in two of the three games, and turnovers are still prevalent.
That lack of scoring overall should be tested Friday night when the run-and-gun, 3-point shooting Lake Geneva Badgers invade Burlington High School.
In what should go a long way in determining the SLC hierarchy, this tilt is a classic explosive offense-stingy defense matchup.
Badger, under coach Forrest Larson, a Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Famer who led Badger to state in 2008 but was out of coaching the last four years, is 3-1 and averages 71 points per game.
Burlington will have to find a way to contain senior Lincoln Wieseman, who is third in the SLC with 18.7 points per game.
“We need some more game experience, so this will be a good stretch for us,” Berezowitz said.
The Demons play Verona, Franklin and Evansville over the holidays before returning to SLC action Tuesday, Jan. 6, at Wilmot.
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