South Elgin defense shuts down Hampshire
South Elgin shut down Hampshire's leading scorer and took advantage of missed free throws by the Whip-Purs to earn a 54-43 nonconference win in Hampshire Saturday night.
South Elgin improved to 5-1. Hampshire (2-3), which shot 11 of 23 from the line, suffered its third straight loss.
"I like it," Storm coach Chaz Taft said of the 5-1 start. "The energy is there and they're all pulling for each other. There were some guys that might not have had a good game last night coming off the bench (in a 57-52 win vs. Lake Park) and tonight they had a great game. There's a lot of energy for us coming off the bench and we run nine or 10 deep so everybody plays a part in this, not just one guy."
South Elgin reserves Sheldon Chaney, Dillon Gardner and John Menken combined to outscore Hampshire's bench 16-4. Junior guard Sam Sutter led the Storm with 14 points and senior guard Tommy Childs scored 13.
Childs and freshman point guard Jake Maestranzi took turns hounding Hampshire all-area shooting guard Justin Bieber, a senior who averages 21 points per game. Bieber was held to 5 points on 2-of-11 shooting and did not sink a 3-pointer. The Whips shot 0 for 11 from 3-point range as a team.
"We just tried to get (Bieber) to constantly spin because we knew he was going to shoot that jumpshot and it was going to go long a lot of times," Taft said.
"He forced some things," Hampshire coach Bob Barnett said. "He's got to learn to let the game come to him. He got some open looks and made some nice penetration moves but nothing tough."
Hampshire had chances to stay with South Elgin in the fourth quarter, but its missed free throws proved costly. Trailing 39-36 with 6:31 to play, the Whips missed a pair from the line. Sutter subsequently widened the lead to 6 points when he buried a 3-pointer after he received a crisp cross-court pass from Maestranzi.
Hampshire then split a pair at the line, rebounded the miss, drew a foul, then missed the front end of the bonus.
Again South Elgin cashed in with a 3-pointer, this time by Childs, to take a 45-37 lead with 5:34 left in the game.
"We just needed to make our free throws for one (thing) and not let them get out in transition," said Hampshire 6-foot-7 sophomore Tyler Watzlawick, who finished with a game-high 19 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. "They're a fast team and they like to run, so we should have tried to stop them more. We're a good team. Once we get everything going we're going to be hard to beat."
Leading by 9 points with under three minutes to play, the Storm spread the floor and forced Hampshire to foul. South Elgin hit 4-of-5 free throws down the stretch and Matthew Downing (7 points) scored an easy layup when Chaney spotted the 6-6 center all alone under the basket.
"You can't let a team like that get up on you by 5 because they'll do exactly what they did at the end," Barnett said. "They start taking the air out of the ball and they shoot free throws and make them... We need everybody to contribute. We have to get out of this funk. We've lost three in a row now and it's not getting any easier. We've got Winnebago and Byron next week."
Guard Shyler Ralphs scored 11 points for Hampshire.