Hampshire knocks off Byron

Hampshire boys basketball coach Bob Barnett felt his Whip-Purs didn't have the matchups in their Big Northern crossover with Byron Thursday night.

Nor did he believe his team could match Byron's speed or simulate the Tigers' shooting.

But after the Whip-Purs' 60-52 victory, a win that was mostly hampered by Hampshire's size and its crisp shooting, it might be the Tigers who might want to look at matchup problems along with the Whip-Purs' shooting and size.

“This team (Byron), we didn't matchup real well with because of their speed, our size, our lack of speed,” said Barnett, whose Whip-Purs made it four-straight wins. “Yesterday we went over the fact that the bigs were going to have to get to the corner.

“We controlled the boards and we should control the boards.”

The Whip-Purs (4-2) outrebounded Byron (6-2) 35-17, which included 11 on the offensive glass, while the forward-center combo of Tyler Watzlawick (14 rebounds) and Shane Hernandez (9 rebounds) combined for 23 boards while both scored 13 points apiece down low to help control the paint area.

“We knew they weren't really that big inside,” said Watzlawick, who earned a double-double. “If we have an inside game that means they're all going to have to collapse and it opens up our shooters outside.”

And when Byron had to collapse, Hampshire's shooters were ready, as the team combined to nail six 3-pointers, including four from Pat Azizi, who widened the gap in the third quarter, when the game hung in the balance.

After a first half that saw Byron climb to a 17-5 lead in the early going on hot shooting, including two 3-pointers from its leading scorer Matt Groharing (12 points), Byron fizzed out as Hampshire caught fire. The Whip-Purs rattled off a 23-9 run on 9 for 14 shooting behind Hernandez and Watzlawick, who commanded a 23-point second quarter to cut the halftime deficit to one.

Then enter Azizi.

Azizi began the half by nailing three of his four 3-pointers in the first four minutes, including a left corner shot that put Hampshire out in front 43-36 with 3:41 left in the third. Hampshire shot 50 percent from the field and attempted 13 free throws opposed to Byron's two. After the outside shooting prevailed, Hampshire went back down low to their bigs. Hernandez converted on a sweet up-and-under plus the foul to up Hampshire's lead to 7. Two minutes later, Azizi's next 3-pointer from deep put Hampshire ahead 56-44 and the nail in Byron's coffin with 2:34 left. Azizi would finish with 12, all his points coming from behind the arc.

“I think we were just able to move the ball around, get some nice spacing,” Azizi said. “The bigs set some good screens up there, and we were able to move it around the perimeter really well.”

Hampshire's defense might earn some credit. A 3-2 zone prevented Byron to continue its first-half shooting. The Tigers were held to 40 percent shooting and were outscored 30-21 in the second half. Byron saw its shooting drop from 52 percent to 31. After Byron scored 76, 92, 70 and 71 points in the last four games, 52 is a big drop off.

“We decided to rotate more on the zone, we got a few stops and hit a few shots and went from there,” Azizi said.