The Burlington Central girls basketball team used effective 3-point shooting to snap its 5 game losing streak Thursday night at home.

Central sank 9 baskets to Richmond-Burton’s 10, but 6 of the buckets were from beyond the arc in the 35-25 win over the Kishwaukee River Conference rival. R-B shooters drained only one trey.

“We’ll take it. We scored enough to win,” said Central coach Mark Smith. “It wasn’t pretty all the time but we got the job done.”

Freshman Kathryn Schmidt led the way for Central. All 4 of her basket were 3-pointers. Schmidt, who led all scorers with 17 points, also nailed 3 critical free throws in the fourth quarter to thwart a R-B rally.

Smith felt his team’s successful efforts in neutralizing KC Davids and Brooke Legnaioli, R-B’s two main scoring threats also contributed to the win.

“We tried to limit 10 (Davids) from going to the basket. I thought we did a pretty good job with that,” Smith said. “We tried to limit 22 (Legnaioli) from shooting 3s. We did a good job with that too.”

Davids scored a team-high 10 points. Legnaioli hit R-B’s only 3-pointer.

Central (8-7, 5-2) never trailed in the contest. Mackenzie West started the scoring with a layup 40 seconds into the contest. Central led 12-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Central maintained its 6 point margin at the half, leading 18-12.

R-B (7-8, 2-4) pulled within 3, 22-19, with 41 seconds left in the third quarter. Davids was fouled attempting a 3-point shot. The 5-foot-1 senior connected on all three free throws. Reserve Lilliane Morretti (6 points) sank her second trey of the night from the right corner just before time expired returning Central’s lead to 6, 25-19, to start the last quarter.

With 3:30 left in the contest, Davids hit a jumper from the top of the key and cut Central’s led again to 3, 28-25.

A minute later Schmidt was fouled. She made both ends of a one-and-one to widen the gap to 5, 30-25. She returned to the charity stripe with a little over a minute left to play and split two free throws to give her squad a 31-25 margin.

“I’m really proud of the way that they got it close there in the end and we held our ground and got the win,” said Smith.

West Aurora 44, West Chicago 37: The West Aurora girls basketball team left West Chicago on Thursday night with a 44-37 victory over the Wildcats because of its ability to turn its game up a notch late into the contest.

The two teams combined for just three baskets in the fourth quarter, but the Blackhawks (8-7 overall, 3-0 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division) came through when sent to the free-throw line. West Aurora made 7 of 13 in the final period and it was enough to hold West Chicago (6-11, 1-2) at bay.

“We put in a new offense and there were some mistakes early, but the girls did a great job,” said Blackhawks coach Connie Sijendahl. “Our goal is to win conference and this was a step to where we want to go. They (West Chicago) broke our press easily and we had to come up with something. They’re a good team.”

With the score tied at 35-all, Dajour Miles hit net on a jump shot followed soon after by game-high scorer Keva Tomas, who finished with 15 points, making her fifth and final 3-point basket of the night.

Both teams called a timeout and then with just 1:30 remaining in the contest Sierra Koening turned a steal into a layup to pull the Wildcats to within 40-37. The Blackhawks then proceeded to make four of their final six free throws to dry the ink on this win.

Koening led West Chicago with 13 points.

This was not a game of big leads. West Aurora led 8-6 after the first quarter and a basket by Catherine Miller with under a minute left until halftime gave West Chicago a 19-18 advantage at the break.

Sofia Radice, who finished with 10 points, drove through the lane and hit net to put West Chicago up 17-14 with under three minutes until halftime, the biggest lead for either team.

The Blackhawks made 4 of 6 free throws in the span of about a minute in the third quarter to take a 32-28 lead, the biggest lead for either team in that stanza. But with just 15 seconds remaining on the scoreboard, Radice made it 32-30 and Samantha Wiegele hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to put West Chicago up 33-32.

Essence Rayford followed Tomas on the scoresheet with 13 points.

“This is awesome. We really want to win it (conference),” Miles said of her team’s perfect league mark so far.

—D.J. Wanberg

South Elgin 60, East Aurora 54: Mackie Kelleher hit for a career-high 33 points Thursday night to lead the South Elgin girls basketball team to a 60-54 Upstate Eight Valley win over East Aurora.

With the win the Storm moved to 10-6 overall and 3-0 in the Valley.

St. Edward 62, Walther Christian 34: Maddie Spagnola had 18 points and Katelyn Castoro added 13 as St. Edward (13-3, 4-0) won this Metro Suburban game. It was the Green Wave’s 12th straight win.

Elgin 52, Cornerstone Christian 32: Kylie Graves had 12 points and Dajha Cooper added 8 as the Maroons (3-13) won this nonconference game.