Hampshire wins regional; Montini next

Pinpointing the key player in Hampshire’s 48-31 victory over Rochelle Friday is no problem.

Senior Karla Vietinghoff poured in 12 second-half points and grabbed 6 rebounds for the Whip-Purs as they claimed the championship of the Class 3A Sycamore girls basketball regional.

Or maybe it was Alex Dumoulin coming back from getting elbowed in the nose and going 6 of 6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter with gauze in her nose.

But Jessica Van Dorin did nail a pair of 3-pointers as Hampshire (27-2) claimed the program’s 14th regional title.

The reward is a sectional semifinal matchup Tuesday at Burlington Central against defending 3A champ and top-ranked Montini (30-1), which beat St. Francis 74-34 Friday for the St. Francis regional title.

Michelle Dumoulin also finished with a pair of blocks to go along with 7 points for Hampshire.

who now has a date with Montini in semifinal action at the Class 3A Burlington Central sectional at 7:30 p.m. Or it could have been point guard Grace Jakubowski, who at 5-foot-6 led all players with 7 second-half rebounds and 10 overall.

So the key factor in Hampshire’s win was pretty clear cut.

“It was a team effort,” Hampshire coach Ed Haugens said. “The girls did a great job of defensive rebounding tonight.”

With a well-rounded help-based defense, Hampshire smothered Rochelle into shooting 3 of 27 from the floor in the second half. Hampshire, which trailed 22-21 at halftime, allowed the Hubs just 9 second-half points.

And despite giving up a massive height advantage to Rochelle, the Whips finished with a 19-11 edge on the glass in the second half.

“We knew we had to box out,” said Vietinghoff, who finished with 16 points and shot 5 of 8 from the floor in the second half. “We had to rotate more. In the first half we were a little timid, but in the second half we were relaxed.”

The relaxation came as Hampshire was able to finally take control of the game after playing catch up for the majority of the first half. Hampshire outscored Rochelle 13-5 in the third period, keyed by a 13-2 run in the first 6 minutes of the quarter, to go up 34-22. Hampshire shot 5 of 8 from the floor in the third period, with Vietinghoff (7) and Van Dorin (6) combining for the 13 points.

“Rochelle came out really hard (in the first half),” said Alex Dumoulin, who finished with 16 points and 7 rebounds. “Their girls did a great job. We had some nerves. Some of the girls haven’t played in a regional championship game.”

Jakubowski was as calm as could be. The junior point guard played help defense on the Hubs’ center Cassidy Ziech. At 6-2 Ziech was limited to 2 points and 3 rebounds in the second half. In turn, Jakubowski helped forced Rochelle into turnovers on its first 3 possessions of the second half.

But her 7 second-half rebounds were what really stood out.

“We come out and work really hard on rebounding in practice,” Jakubowski said. “We worked hard to get them out of the lane and into the corners and force turnovers.”