Burling caps big week with 19 points
By Mike Ramczyk
And Jason Arndt
The Burlington girls basketball team picked up a solid road victory at Kenosha Bradford Tuesday night.
The Lady Demons bolted to a 31-15 halftime lead en route to a 55-44 victory and reached the .500 mark for the season at 7-7.
Jessa Burling led the charge with 19 points and seven rebounds, and Megan Wallace added 18 points and seven rebounds.
“Tonight we played very well on the offensive end,” said Burlington coach Mary Parker. “We had good ball movement and were making our cuts with a purpose. We also were able to get some points in transition.”
Burlington hosts Elkhorn Friday night.
Lady Demons fall to first-place Panthers
Wilmot Union High School senior McKenna Stanek felt a sense of urgency entering last Friday’s girls basketball contest against visiting Burlington, with her team less than two games ahead of the Demons in the Southern Lakes Conference standings.
The urgency not only propelled Stanek to set a new career-high 19 points, it helped Wilmot to a 53-46 defeat of the Demons, who are now two games back following their loss to the Panthers.
“We played them very evenly until the last few minutes when we had too many breakdowns on defense,” Burlington coach Mary Parker said. “On the offensive end, we missed too many open looks underneath the basket. They were able to take advantage of our turnovers in transition.”
Wilmot improved to 10-3 (7-1 SLC) while Burlington dropped to 6-7 (4-3 SLC).
“I knew it was a big game, for us being 6-1 in the conference, and we had Burlington to play,” said Stanek. “So we needed to come out strong and I had to play my role.”
Her strong play, in addition to the Panthers’ overall team effort, offset Burling’s game-high 24 points and 14 rebounds.
According to Panthers’ coach Keiya Square, the 5-foot-10 Burling was difficult to stop, noting her ability to attack the inside lane.
“Jessa is really good and she was able to attack us in certain spots,” said Square, who also had Demons’ senior Megan Wallace to contend with. “We tried to shut down one of them.”
Wallace scored 12 points and had seven rebounds.
Back-and-forth second half
Burlington produced a 13-10 run lasting nearly 10 minutes to open the second half, giving them a 34-32 lead.
On the ensuing possession, Sjong had a 3-point play, courtesy of a Wallace foul to give the Panthers a 35-34 edge.
Following two Burling free throws, which pulled the game in the Demons’ favor, Stanek drained a 3-pointer to give the Panthers a 38-36 with 7:55 left of regulation.
Burling deadlocked the contest with two more free throws, before the Panthers took control of the contest with 6:35 remaining, starting with two Zenon free throws and a Julia Hickey 3-pointer.
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