Hampshire rattles off 50-point sectional win

DeKALB - It took the Hampshire girls basketball team little time here Monday night to establish its dominance.

The Whip-Purs rolled out to an 18-4 lead after one quarter, extended it to 36-7 by halftime and went on to rout Freeport 71-21 in the semifinals of the Class 3A DeKalb sectional.

Seventh-ranked Hampshire (29-1) will take on Oswego (27-2) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for the sectional title. Oswego dumped Prairie Ridge 55-30 in Monday's first semifinal. Oswego's only losses this season are to Class 4A Geneva and Waubonsie Valley.

The Sweet Sixteen trip is Hampshire's first since 2004 when the Whips placed second in Class A. Thursday's winner will play the St. Viator sectional champ in the Streamwood supersectional next Monday at 7:30 p.m.

Senior Chrissy Heine led the way for the Whips Monday, scoring 7 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, 3 steals and dishing out 5 assists in the first half alone. Oh, and she blocked 2 shots for good measure. Heine finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.

"You have to be prepared for anything and we were prepared for anything they threw at us tonight," Heine said. "We worked as one. Nobody's selfish on this team. It's a great team."

Junior Karla Vietinghoff added 10 points in the first half, hitting two 3-pointers, as the Whips shot 14-for-27 in the first 16 minutes and 29 of 58 for the game. Vietinghoff finished with 13 points, as did senior Cassie Dumoulin, who added 7 rebounds. Sophomore Connie Ellett came off the bench to score 11 points as the Whips hit nine 3-pointers in the game - 3 each by Vietinghoff, Ellett and junior Jessie Van Dorin.

But it all started with defense, as usual, for Hampshire. The Whips, who lost to Freeport in the sectional semis last year as Freeport went on to finish second in the state tournament for the second straight year, harassed the Pretzels (11-20) into 13 first-half turnovers and 3 of 19 shooting. Freeport shot just 8 of 43 for the game.

With a 29-point lead at halftime, there was little doubt as to the outcome, and the Whips made extra sure of that by scoring the first 19 points of the third quarter. Freeport didn't score in the third until Paige Calow made a basket with 35 seconds to play in the period.

Hampshire's biggest lead of the game was the final score.

Junior Alex Dumoulin scored 6 points for Hampshire but pulled down 13 rebounds as the Whips owned the glass 45-19.

"It's all gravy now," said Hampshire coach Sue Ellett, who substituted freely after the first quarter. "We graduated eight seniors last year and we lost a lot of leadership and experience but we returned our core three and they helped bring the sophomores and the juniors along. Twenty-nine victories is impressive."

Ellett put no emphasis on revenge, as Freeport graduated four 1,000-point scorers from its back-to-back state runner-up teams.

"It's only a name," Ellett said. "They're a completely different team."