Hampshire comes alive in 2nd half, tops Burlington Central

Hampshire boys basketball coach Bob Barnett's message at halftime Saturday night was simple - stop giving up second-chance opportunities.

Burlington Central had eight offensive rebounds in the first half, which allowed the Rockets to rally from an 11-point deficit. The Whip-Purs gave up zero offensive boards in the third quarter and outscored the Rockets, 18-4, en route to a 69-53 Big Northern East victory on Hampshire's Pack the Place night.

"We needed to fix our rebounding," Hampshire senior Shylar Ralphs said. "Our coach told us that we needed to go out and actually go get the ball instead of just watching it. That's when we started breaking away from them."

After the Rockets (7-9, 3-1) tied the game at 6-6 with 2:45 left in the first quarter, Hampshire went on an 11-0 run to take a 17-6 lead with 6:30 remaining in the second quarter. Ralphs had 6 points during the run.

Central answered with a 10-0 run, with Ray Hunnicutt and Zach Romando each scoring 5 points, over the next 2 minutes to get within 1, 17-16. Hampshire kept the lead and went to the break up 26-22.

The Rockets couldn't get to the offensive boards in the third quarter despite having plenty of opportunities as they shot just 1-for 12 in the quarter. The Whip-Purs (10-5, 3-1) took advantage. Ralphs and Justin Bieber each scored 8 points in the third, helping Hampshire take a 44-26 lead into the fourth.

"We limited them to one shot," Barnett said. "Then we got the ball down the floor and we did what we wanted to do with it."

Central wouldn't get any closer than 13 in the fourth. The Rockets shot just 19-for-63 for the game. Romando led Central with 14 points, including hitting four 3-pointers. Hunnicutt added 11 and Sam Klein had 10.

"We laid an egg," Rockets coach Brett Porto said. "We didn't do one thing well. Poor executing offensively. When you are a team that thrives off defensive pressure when you don't score buckets it's hard to get into that pressure."

Ralphs finished with a game-high 22 points, including going 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. Tyler Watzlawick had 16 points, 10 in the fourth, and 10 rebounds for the Whip-Purs. Bieber added 14.

"It feels really good to beat Central. Obviously we still want to win a conference title and repeat this year," Ralphs said. "Ever since the Richmond-Burton game we have been a lot more focused."