Burlington Central pushes Hampshire to limit

Hampshire's girls basketball team survived and remained unbeaten for the season Saturday night, but it was Stephanie Smith's Burlington Central squad that opened some eyes.

Poised to hand their coach's alma mater its first loss of the season, the Rockets fought to the bitter end before falling 47-42 in front of a sizable crowd on Hampshire's Pack the Place night.

"I told Stephanie what a great job she did and I said 'thank you,' " said Hampshire coach Sue Ellett, whose team had its closest encounter since a 31-29 win over DeKalb at Thanksgiving time.

"This was the best thing that could have happened to us."

Save for a 2 minute and 31 second stretch in the third quarter, Smith's Rockets may have pulled off the upset of the season.

The Rockets (12-7, 3-2 Big Northern East) never trailed in the first half, using a tenacious defense and patient offense to take a hard-fought 23-17 lead into the break. A Brenda Thasavong basket 31 seconds into third quarter extended the lead to 25-17.

But then a Cassie Dumoulin bucket 12 seconds later started the Class 3A eighth-ranked Whip-Purs (16-0, 3-0) on a 16-0 run that saw them take a 33-25 lead after junior Karla Vietinghoff hit her second 3-pointer of the run with 4:46 to go in the quarter.

"(Ellett) has been having me shooting in practice every day and today they were falling," said Vietinghoff, who finished with three 3-pointers and 15 points. "My teammates helped me get open and it was a big game so that helped boost my confidence."

Said Ellett: "We need that weapon from the outside."

Down by 8, most teams would have folded to an undefeated opponent and been happy with the fight they did put up. Not the Rockets on this night, though.

They closed the gap to 36-35 on a Thasavong basket from the lane with 26 seconds left in the third but then a mental mistake on an inbounds play gave Hampshire the ball back and Cassie Dumoulin scored just before the buzzer to give the Whips a 38-35 advantage heading to the fourth. Senior Chrissy Heine (17 points, 4 assists) drove the lane for a bucket 15 seconds into the fourth and made a free throw 45 seconds later to give Hampshire a 41-35 lead.

"I thought Chrissy played with a lot of senior poise all night tonight," Ellett said.

But again the Rockets refused to fold. Katie McNutt hit a 3-pointer at the 5:05 mark to make it a 41-38 game and BC had a chance to tie a minute later but Jordan Maisto's 3-point attempt rimmed out. Vietinghoff then came down and took a nifty kick-out pass from Heine to drill another 3 and make it 44-38 with 3:58 to play.

Central had possessions and chances down the stretch but could get no closer than 4 the rest of the way.

"If we were going to come in here and beat them we had to play a near-perfect game and in the first half we did," said Smith, who graduated from Hampshire in 2000. "Hampshire adjusted well at halftime and rattled us some but we never gave up. My kids played with a lot of heart and effort and that's what we want to be known for. We're not going to back down from anybody. They went out there and left it all on the court.

Alex Dumoulin added 9 points for Hampshire, which after shooting just 8 of 23 in the first half made 11 of 15 in the second half to finish the game at an even 50 percent (19 of 38). The Whips did, though, commit 27 turnovers in the game while Central had just 17.

"(At halftime) I just talked to them very slowly," Ellett said. "I never yelled. I just said we need to slow it down and we talked about defense. I didn't want to do anything crazy and scare them."

"But my hat's off to Central. Steph's got it going in the right direction and she's going to do a great job with that program."

Senior Taylor Colby led the Rockets with 13 points while Thasavong had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Maisto and Alli Settanni added 8 points each for BC.

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