It’s a scheduling quirk and happened only by chance. Too bad for Burley.

    Fueled by the frustration of a bad loss and a disappointing piece of news, Century outworked and outhustled Burley and cruised to a 41-21 final Saturday at Century High School.

    Burley’s 21-point total is its lowest of the season and 26 points below its season average.

    The Diamondbacks (12-2, 5-0 4A 5-6) lunged in passing lanes, shuffled their feet to deny ball penetration and battled for every loose ball.

    After losing to Highland Thursday by 26, Century head coach Chris Shuler and the D-backs had a grueling, principles-based practice Friday. He challenged his players to get better.

    “We’ve got to go to work, and Friday, we did,” he said. “We didn’t take any time off. We went for an hour and a half hard. I mean hard.”

    And just recently, the Diamondbacks learned Kylee Casper will miss the rest of this season with an injury. The junior post injured her knee and was out for Century’s run to the 4A state tournament final a year ago, too.

    In her honor, the players sported warm-up shirts with the words “Do it for Kev” on the back, a reference to Casper’s nickname Kevin.

    “With the loss from Highland and a rough time losing Kylee Casper, we just took it out on them,” said Century sophomore Rian Rawlings. “(Coach Shuler) prepared us at practice for this, and we knew that we had to come and take it out on them.”

    Century led 11-4 after the first quarter, 23-11 at half and following the third period where Burley scored two points, the Diamondbacks stood firmly in control, 30-13.

    “We worked on our defense quite a bit,” Shuler said. “We worked on it a lot and it showed. Tonight, our defense was pretty good.”

    The Diamondbacks rotated between an active 2-3 zone and their trademark man-to-man. Whatever they used, the Bobcats (9-6) struggled to adjust.

    That’s exactly what Shuler wants.

    “It kind of threw Burley for a loop,” he said. “That’s good. We need to be able to do that.”

    Even though Century rolled to the 20-point victory, Burley did fight back in a physical fashion. Both teams threw elbows and hip checks. The fouls mounted.

    D-back junior Henny Hearn was saddled with foul trouble all night, but Kyleigh Hatch entered off the bench to score eight points.

    “We could have hung our heads and said, ‘Oh, crap, Henny’s in foul trouble,’” Shuler said. “But Kyleigh came in, filled her spot (and) knew her role.”

    Junior Sarah Holt had a game-high 11 points for Century. Both Hearn and Rawlings added eight.

    Century travels to Bonneville Wednesday.

Century 41, Burley 21

Burley    4 7 2 8 — 21

Century    11 12 7 11 — 41

Burley — Bryn Bowers 5, Baylee Robins 1, Kortney Hutchison 5, Chelsee Baker 6, Ainsley Noble 4.

Century — Aliea Son 3, Henny Hearn 8, Rian Rawlings 8, Sarah Holt 11, Kyliegh Hatch 8, Jacqueline Cuttlers 1, Taylor Roske 2.