Hampshire falls to Freeport, but the future is bright
The Hampshire girls basketball team came into Monday night's Class 3A Marengo sectional semifinal a decided underdog against Freeport, the defending state 3A runner-up squad that returned four 1,000-point scorers to the lineup this season.
But the Whip-Purs showed no fear, and nearly pulled off a huge postseason upset.
Freeport, though, used its experience to hold off the pesky Whip-Purs, 54-47, and advance to Thursday night's championship game against Oswego or Crystal Lake Central.
"We gave 'em heck for 32 minutes," said Hampshire coach Sue Ellett, whose team was in the sectional for the first time since 2005. "I'm so proud of our kids. They came out of the locker room ready to go and not afraid of anything."
And how. The Whips (24-5) jumped out to a 12-3 lead before Freeport senior Leah Dietmeier came off the bench to can two 3-pointers and make it 12-9 at the quarter break. The Whips gave up the lead once late in the second quarter on Dietmeier's third 3-pointer, but closed the half ahead 24-22 after junior Alex Dumoulin's 3-point play.
Hampshire then scored the first 6 points of the third quarter, prompting Freeport coach Ryan Pierce to call a time out and blast his team for a lack of effort. The short tirade worked as the Pretzels (28-3) left the bench on fire, going on a 20-4 run that gave them a 42-34 lead with 6:08 left in the game.
The Whips never gave up though. They trailed 46-36 with 2:26 to play but whittled away and were down just 48-45 after 2 free throws by junior Cassie Dumoulin (10 points, 6 rebounds) with 37 seconds left. But Freeport senior Katie Norman took over, feeding classmate Courtney Shiffer for a hoop with 28 seconds to go and then making 4 straight free throws in the final 15 seconds to seal the win. Norman led the Pretzels with 14 points and 8 rebounds.
"I got on them like never before; I'm usually not like that," said Pierce of the time out. "I wasn't the least bit surprised at Hampshire. They didn't win 24 games because they're an average team. We knew how good they were. Coach Ellett was right -the pressure was on us and they came out of the gates with nothing to lose."
Alex Dumoulin led the Whips with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Junior Chrissy Heine had 12 points and 11 boards as the Whips won the battle on the glass 36-29.
"We gave them all we could and everything we had," said Heine. We never gave up."
Ellett knew when the lead got to 10 it was going to be tough for her team to catch up.
"Their experience at the end kind of took over," she said. "Come crunchtime, in the fourth quarter, their kids who had been through this before took control. I knew getting down 8-10 points to Freeport would be dangerous."
Despite the fact she loses seniors Kelly Plichta, Christine Schumacher, Gianina Estocado, Jackie Jeffries, Kayla Meyer and Kelsey Watson, Ellett knows the future is bright for her program.
"Alex, Cassie and Chrissy played tremendous inside tonight and the nice thing is they all suit up again for the Whip-Purs next year," Ellett said. "Physically and mentally we were right there with Freeport tonight and the kids grew a lot."