Hampshire opens new gym with big win over Kaneland
New gymnasium. Same Hampshire.
The Whip-Purs christened their impressive new digs by dispatching Kaneland, 59-39, in the season opener for both teams Tuesday night.
Hampshire broke open a close game with a 17-1 run spanning the intermission. Kelly Plichta led a balanced attack with 14 points.
Hampshire coach Sue Ellett will take a win anywhere.
"I'm not big on 'firsts' out here," she said. "I'm old school, so it wasn't a first win or anything like that. We like to win and we're trying to bring that tradition out here."
Hampshire raced out to a 14-3 lead. But with Alyssa Galvan wreaking havoc in the middle, the Knights chipped away. They got within 3 at 24-21, but Hampshire scored 7 quick points to close the first half with a 36-25 lead. The Whips opened the second half with an 11-1 run to put the game away.
"The kids' heads were down a little bit at halftime," Ellett said. "I said 'Get your heads up, you're up 9 or 11 points or whatever it was, and you had one bad stretch.' But they're very hard on themselves. They want to play well for all 32 minutes, and we probably did for about 25 of them."
It was a disappointing opening for Kaneland.
"The defensive mistakes we made were defensive mistakes we made when we were sophomores," said Knights coach Ernie Colombe. "Now we're juniors and seniors; that was a little bit disappointing."
Alex Dumoulin had 6 points and 6 rebounds for Hampshire despite foul trouble. Chrissy Heine added 10 points, and Christine Schumacher scored 9. Cassie Dumoulin had 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 steals. Gina Estocado also scored 8 points for the Whips.
Galvan came off the bench to lead Kaneland with 10 points and a game-high 8 rebounds. Chassidy Mangers added 9 points and Sara Rose 8 for Kaneland.
Hampshire forced 27 turnovers in all, while holding the Knights to 28 percent shooting. Meanwhile, Hampshire shot 51 percent for the game.
Cary-Grove 56, Antioch 52: Liz Bart scored 14 points and Tori Sandstrom added 12 as Cary-Grove held off a late Antioch rally to win its season opener on the road.
Rockford Christian 56, Westminster 43: Sarah Rodgers scored 16 points and Rachel Dobvy added 12 but Westminster Christian (1-1) was outscored 30-19 in the second half of this loss at the Rockford Christian tournament.
Hoffman Estates 66, South Elgin 54: The Storm got 15 points from Cortney Kumerow and 11 each from Genevieve Johnson and Alyssa Krause but it wasn't enough to win this nonconference season opener.