Hampshire handles Dundee-Crown
A great start and hot 3-point shooting weren't enough for Hampshire's boys basketball team against Dundee-Crown. It took some late heroics by Nathan Cork to carry the Whip-Purs to their second Fox Valley Conference victory.
Cork made three 3-pointers down the stretch as the Whips (5-16, 2-7) overcame a fourth-quarter deficit and pulled away to the 47-39 win in Hampshire Friday night.
Cork's first bomb gave Hampshire a 39-37 lead after the Chargers had overcome an 18-point first-half deficit to take the lead.
"We ran a set to try to get a slip for a layup but they defended that well, and that opened up Nate from outside and he knocked it down," said Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse."
After D-C tied the game on a basket by Gabriel Bergeron, Cork connected on back-to-back possessions to put the Whips ahead 45-39 with just over a minute left.
"I was most proud that they came back and took the lead at the end of the second half and we were able to respond down the stretch," Whitehouse said.
It was all Hampshire early. The Whips scored the game's first 12 points and led 15-1 after one quarter. D-C missed all 6 of its field goal attempts, including a dunk, and 5 of 6 free throws while turning it over six times. The Chargers didn't get their first field goal until Tariq Burns connected a half-minute into the second quarter.
Bill Dumoulin scored 12 points for Hampshire, including a couple of huge 3-pointers in the third quarter. Cork finished with 11 and Drew Dalby added 7 off the bench.
Bergeron finished with 16 points for D-C (3-16, 1-8).
Hampshire built the lead to 21-3, but the Chargers battled back. They ended the first half on a 7-0 run to get the deficit down to single digits, 25-16, by halftime.
Hampshire center Nathan Gomez had to leave the game in the second quarter after taking an elbow to the mouth. He didn't return, and the Chargers took advantage of his absence inside, with Bergeron attacking the basket as well as Khiry Powell driving the basket.
With Dumoulin scoring 8 points in the run, Hampshire built the lead back to 13 points. But the Chargers answered with a 12-0 run to take their only lead of the night, 37-36 with 6 minutes left.
D-C made just 4 of 16 free throws. Hampshire, meanwhile, had just 6 attempts from the charity stripe but made them all.
"Our guys showed a lot of character battling back, but Hampshire did a great job and they deserved to win," said Chargers coach Lance Huber. "We had some untimely turnovers (in the first quarter), missing open looks, and our free-throw shooting wasn't very good. If you make 4 out of 16 and 2 of those are the front ends of one-and-ones, you probably don't deserve to win the game."