Benoit's 28 leads Hampshire past Hoffman Estates

After losing two straight games, Hampshire's girls basketball team got back in the win column with an impressive 59-36 win over Hoffman Estates in fourth round action of the Pilgrim Classic Thanksgiving Tournament Friday night in Hoffman Estates.

Hampshire (3-2) received a stellar effort from senior center Emma Benoit, who connected on 12-of-15 shots including a 3-pointer in scoring 28 points. The Northern Michigan recruit also grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 3 assists.

Benoit was the recipient of 7 assists from Nikki Dumoulin and 6 from Rachel Dumoulin.

"The guards did a great job of getting me the ball in great position to score," said Benoit. "If I have a mismatch they know to get the ball to me. It was certainly a fun game to be in."

Hampshire coach Mike Featherly wanted to get the ball to Benoit as often as possible.

"By scouting Hoffman Estates we knew we could get a mismatch inside with Emma," said the Hampshire coach. "We are an inside outside offense but today because of the mismatch we got the ball to Emma and she went to the basket."

Hoffman Estates coach Mike Koester tried to employ different defensive schemes on Benoit but nothing worked.

"Emma is a very good player and we tried a lot of different defenses on her," said Koester. "She was just too good tonight."

The Hawks stayed closed with the Whip-Purs early. A basket by Monraia Wilson tied the score at 5 with 5:22 left in the first quarter.

Hampshire followed with a 10-0 run to seize control of the game. Benoit scored 6 points and Rachel Dumoulin tallied 4 as the Whip-Purs led 15-5 with 1:41 remaining in the initial quarter.

The Hawks couldn't get any closer.

Leading 32-16 at halftime. Hampshire was paced by Benoit with 17 points.

The Whip-Purs' biggest advantage of the game was 55-29 after a basket by Maggie Goad with 2:22 remaining in the contest.

Wilson led the Hawks (1-3), who connected on only 12-of-43 shots for 27 percent, with 16 points while Tayler Williams tallied 8 points with a pair of treys.

"We did some good stuff tonight," said Koester. "We got some good looks but we couldn't make enough shots. We need to be more consistent at both ends of the floor."