Motivated Hampshire rolls over McHenry

High school basketball careers are nearing the finish line for Hampshire's seniors and retiring head coach Bob Barnett.

But the Whip-Purs showed they could prolong the inevitable ending by playing at the level they did Friday night in a 53-32 Fox Valley Conference boys crossover victory at McHenry.

"The energy was back," said Barnett, who announced Monday he would conclude his 28-year head coaching career after this season. "I think these kids ... it's the end of the season, they know it's near and they don't want to go out."

So, the Whips (15-11) went out and played more like the team that started the season 13-2 and not the one that came in with 9 losses in their last 10 games. Senior Matt Bridges had game-highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds and sophomore Brennen Woods and senior Matt Llamas keyed a defense that stifled the Warriors (6-22).

"You always want to play hard for coach, play hard for everyone and play hard for your teammates," Bridges said.

"It's really big for us," Woods said of trying to send Barnett out on a high note. "Our coach is special to this team. He touches a lot of us and he's taught us a lot."

The 6-foot-4 Woods and the 5-8 Llamas limited 5-8 junior guard and McHenry scoring leader Nick Bellich to 5 of his 11-point average on 2-for-13 shooting and 1-for-8 on 3-pointers. Bellich missed his first 10 shots before hitting a 19-footer with 43 seconds left in the third quarter.

"I had to get a hand up on defense and stop him from penetrating," Woods said. "I felt like he was struggling a little bit and he knew it."

He wasn't the only one as McHenry shot just 22.6 percent from the field (14-for-62) and missed its first 16 attempts behind the arc before Bellich connected with 3:37 to play.

"One thing I thought was excellent all night was our defense," Barnett said after the Warriors were just 1-for-21 on 3s.

"It was good to get back on track," Bridges said. "It seemed like we gelled better as a team and had way more intensity throughout the whole game. We wanted to start the game and end the game getting after it."

Woods was 3-for-6 behind the arc for his 9 points and the Whips got a big boost when Luke Tuttle (8 points) connected from midcourt to give them a 25-17 halftime lead. They also closed a 26-9 rebounding deficit after 13 minutes to 36-32 at the finish.

And that helped make for a happy return for Barnett, who spent four seasons as McHenry's head coach from 1989-90 to 1992-93. Barnett was saluted before the game as former assistant coach Barry Burmeister is now the Warriors' athletic director.

"It was very nice and when they first announced it I thought, 'Am I in trouble,' " Barnett joked. "That was a nice tribute and that was Barry's doing."