Hampshire shoots down Burlington Central

Hamsphire coach Ed Haugens has wanted his team to take more shots all season.

The Whips combined that quantity with quality on Saturday. They couldn’t have shot much better than they did in the fourth quarter against visiting Burlington Central.

Hampshire got great looks at the basket and then made good on them, sinking 9 of 10 attempts to down the Rockets 63-38 in nonconference action.

Hampshire (2-5) went 15-for-22 from the field in the second half, outscoring Burlington Central 35-18.

“This is a team who doesn’t like to shoot the ball,” Haugens said. “(The shots tonight) weren’t shots they were taking before. It was great. A lot of it had to do with when we started attacking. It gave us an opportunity because it opened more people up.”

Attacking the basket also sent three of Burlington Central’s starters to the bench with 4 fouls in the second half. The most damaging was when Alison Colby picked up her fourth with 4:37 left in the game. Colby (10 points, 4 blocks) had kept Burlington Central (3-4) in the game when she scored 8 points and blocked 3 shots in the third period alone.

The Rockets shot 5-for-17 in the third quarter, but Colby went 4 of 7. Without her and forward Jo Jo DeSantis, who picked up her fourth foul in the third quarter, Hampshire was able to get looks in the paint. Rockets long-range threat Jessica Laird was whistled for her fourth foul with 4 seconds left to play in the first half.

Hampshire scored 13 points at the foul line.

“We struggled a little bit because we had to take out some players with four fouls,” Rockets coach Jenna Real said. “It changed the speed that we had to play. We couldn’t get into a consistent game.”

Hampshire found its fluidity as the game progressed.

Point guard Grace Jakubowski (14 points, 3 assists) went 4-for-4 from the field in the second half and 6-for-6 in the game. She nailed a 3-pointer in the third quarter to put the Whips up 39-26 with 3:45 left to play. She finished with 7 of Hampshire’s 13 points in the third period.

Michelle Dumoulin, who had a game-high 19 points, went 7 of 11 from the foul line in the first half. When Burlington Central within 22-18, Dumoulin drove the lane, drew a foul and converted both free throws to put Hampshire back up by 6.

Dumoulin had 5 steals as Hampshire forced 22 Rockets’ turnovers in the first half. Jennifer Dumoulin and Sara Finn each added 3 steals.

“You make one shot and things start falling,” Michelle Dumoulin said. “One person makes a basket and it turns into 5. We did a nice job finding gaps, taking the extra pass to find the person who was open.”