Hampshire earns its share of FVC title
The thought of playing on Senior Night makes some coaches a little nervous; it's hard to predict how the emotions of the night will affect the team.
Hampshire's girls basketball team handled it just fine, running out to a big lead and holding on to defeat McHenry 50-37 and clinch a share of the Fox Valley Conference title Friday night. The Whip-Purs share the title with Dundee-Crown, Huntley and Cary-Grove, which all won their games Friday night as well. Hampshire also tied for the FVC Fox Division title in 2013-14 and now has 25 conference championships in program history, including its time in the Little Eight, Big Eight and Big Northern conferences.
Rachel Dumoulin had 18 points and 8 rebounds in her final home game, and fellow senior Meagan Heine added 10 points for the Whips (17-10, 10-5).
"Coming off of 2 losses in conference, we needed to win again," said Dumoulin. "And with Senior Night we had a lot of momentum and energy tonight and that really pushed us through."
The Whips broke open a tie game with a 12-0 run to lead 20-8 after one quarter, knocking down 8 of 11 shots in the quarter. The fast start was a welcome relief.
"It's normally hard for us to score in the first quarter and I think we ended up with 20 or so in the first quarter," Dumoulin said. "Once we kept shooting and kept making, we had a pretty good feeling about the game."
The Warriors made a run of their own that spanned halftime. Trailing 34-28, they brought the ball upcourt with a chance to make it a one-possession game. But they missed an open 3-pointer and Lauren Herrmann promptly made a 3-pointer at the other end. That started a 16-2 run that extended well into the fourth quarter and eventually put the Whip-Purs up by 20.
"Senior Night's a tough night, you never know what you're going to get," said Hampshire coach Mike Featherly. "They really did harness that energy in a positive way. Twenty in that first quarter, that's nice to see."
McHenry scored the game's final 7 points with its starters playing against Hampshire reserves.
Herrmann finished with 8 points and 5 boards, while Maggie Goad added 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists for Hampshire.
Elizabeth Alsot scored 13 points and Isabel Gscheidle added 12 for McHenry.
"We're kind of a gritty group," said Featherly, whose team opens the postseason Tuesday against Rockford Guilford at the Class 4A Boylan regional. "We talk about teams making runs: that's their run, now it's our turn. Lauren did knock down some big shots. The last two games we really challenged her to be aggressive. Tonight and Tuesday night against Sycamore she really did step up."