Huntley stops Hampshire
Anyone wondering how well Hampshire's boys basketball team would compete in its first season as a member of the Fox Valley Conference had their question answered Wednesday night when the Whip-Purs took league power Huntley to the brink before falling 54-49 in tournament play at Sycamore.
Huntley (2-0) led Hampshire (0-2) by as much as 13 points with 2:40 left in the third quarter, but the Whips rallied to tie the pool play game at 46-46 with 3:31 left in the game when Tyler Watzlawick fed Brandon Waterworth for a layup in the paint.
Hampshire had possession and a chance to take the lead, but a rushed shot in a 1-on-2 situation negated the opportunity, and the Red Raiders cashed in at the other end with a clutch jump shot from the circle by Justin Frederick, one of four Huntley players to crack double-digits in scoring.
"I work on that all the time," Frederick said of the long jumper. "In this offense that shot happens often, so I make sure I make those."
Turnovers on their next 2 possessions kept the Whips from challenging for the lead in the final half minute. Frederick's 2 bonus free throws gave the Red Raiders their final margin of victory with 27.9 seconds to play.
"After the game we said great comeback," Hampshire coach Bob Barnett said of his postgame speech. "This could have been a 30-point ballgame easily, but you have to give the kids credit. They fought back, tied it and had possession."
An ill-advised shot snapped Hampshire's momentum.
"At that point I thought we were going to bring it back out," Barnett said. "I was talking to our coaches and I had a set ready. Those are the things we have to work on. Film sessions are wonderful. Friday morning they're going to watch a couple of games with me and we'll go over stuff."
They won't be the only ones watching film. Though Huntley won, coach Marty Manning was not pleased with what he saw. He questioned his team's inability to resist silly fouls early and he questioned his players' shot selection and pass making.
"Overall, it was not a good game for us," Manning said. "The thing that I was most displeased with out of our group was that I just didn't think we played smart at all. We saw some of that in the first game and I was disappointed that it carried over into the second game. We were fortunate to pull it out because we had that first half lead, but they definitely outplayed us in the second half. No question about it, they were the better team for those 16 minutes and that was really disappointing to see that."
Brock Ralphs scored 18 points for Hampshire to lead all scorers. Watzlawick added 10 points and 8 rebounds and Tyler Crater scored 9 points. Amanze Egekeze and Troy Miller each scored 11 points and Bryce Only added 10 for the Raiders.