Hampshire too strong for Burlington Central
Hampshire knew it would be tougher this time, and it was.
But in the end the Whip-Purs' girls basketball team was stronger than host Burlington Central Saturday night and came away with a 51-40 Big Northern East win at Central's Pack the Place night.
"I thought my seniors did a really nice job tonight," said Hampshire coach Sue Ellett. "We knew coming to Central for Pack the Place night would be a battle."
Hampshire, which beat the Rockets 48-31 in early December, got double-figure scoring from four players while only three Rocket players scored in the game. Junior Chrissy Heine led the Whips with 15 points, while junior Cassie Dumoulin had 11 and her sophomore sister Alex 10. But it was the play of senior Christine Schumacher in the second half that allowed the Whips to open up a close game. Schumacher scored all 11 of her points in the third quarter, including hitting two 3-pointers, as the Whips (14-3, 5-0) turned a 26-19 halftime advantage into a 38-27 lead after three periods.
"I'm pretty proud of Schumacher tonight," said Ellett. "She has to play with more confidence and I saw many more flashes of confidence from her tonight."
"Coach wants me to play with more confidence and I was feeling it in the third quarter tonight," Schumacher said. "(Burlington) played a really good first half and we had to pick up our defense in the second half."
The Rockets (10-9, 3-2), who had a six-game win streak snapped, were led by junior Jordan Maisto's game-high 18 points. Taylor Colby added 13 and Molly Turk 9 but no other Rocket scored as the hosts shot just 15-of-52 from the floor.
"Jordan Maisto is the best point guard in the conference," said Ellett. "They've got a little size inside but we were stronger."
"I wanted to come out and play with a lot of effort and we did that," said Central coach Wade Maisto. "Hampshire is the class team in our conference and you have to play your best game to beat them. They're the best team we've played this season. I'm real proud of our effort."