Hampshire in Strombom title game
Hampshire coach Bob Barnett has participated in 16 Leland Strombom boys basketball tournaments at Sycamore.
Friday night's 54-49 Whip-Purs' overtime victory over Kaneland in the tournament semifinals marks the first time Barnett has won a Strombom semifinal. The Hampshire coach, who also coached 8 seasons at Hinckley-Big Rock, has never done better then the consolation championship in the 8 times he has guided the Whips. Hampshire faces Huntley, a 62-49 winner over Sycamore, at 7:30 p.m. tonight for the championship.
Kaneland didn't make things easy by any means for Hampshire.
The Knights (1-1) battled back from a 33-26 third-quarter deficit to force overtime with a 41-all tie at the end of regulation. Despite 20 total second-half fouls from Kaneland, the Whips were able to keep things close thanks in large part to 19 points from center Tyler Watzlawick.
"At halftime I asked him a couple of questions," Barnett said. "He said he could do some things. We needed that."
Watzlawick made all 6 of the Whips' field goals in the second half and overtime. He scored all of his points after the first half, going 7 of 9 from the free-throw line. Most importantly, he scored the tying basket off an offensive putback with 37 seconds left in regulation to tie the game and force overtime.
Kaneland center Dave Dudzinski (14 points, 9 rebounds) put Kaneland up 41-39 with a thundering dunk with 56 seconds left in regulation.
"I had to be more aggressive," Watzlawick said. "(Dudzinski) was trying to not get that last foul. I had to take it to him."
Hampshire (2-0) took it right to the Knights in overtime as Watzlawick scored on the opening possession. The Knights were outscored 13-8 in the extra session. Justin Bieber (23 points) extended Hampshire's lead to 44-41 after splitting a pair of free throws. Hampshire shot 18 of 26 from the foul line in the game, with 17 of the makes coming in the second half and overtime.
Kaneland coach Brian Johnson credited a switch to a man-to-man defense for some of the fouls.
"They've been playing zone for a while and getting into a man is hard," he said. "They had a lot of energy and we can work with that."
Ryley Bailey showed the energy finishing with 10 points, 5 assists and 4 steals and Chaon Denlinger finished with 21 points.