Girls basketball: Huntley gets back on winning track in FVC vs. Hampshire
Coming off a lopsided and uncharacteristic loss to Cary-Grove last week, Huntley felt it had a lot to prove in a battle of first-place teams Wednesday night.
Huntley, whose loss to Cary-Grove snapped a 37-game Fox Valley Conference winning streak going back to 2022, had three days of practice to prepare for Hampshire and passed the test with flying colors.
The Red Raiders held the Whip-Purs to single digits in all four quarters and blew Wednesday’s game open with a 19-point third quarter.
Led by a career-high 14 points from junior guard Ava McFadden, Huntley coasted to a 53-23 victory over Hampshire to take sole possession of first place in the FVC with seven games left.
“It was great to see the way our kids bounced back tonight,” Raiders coach Steve Raethz said. “We had a great three days of practice leading up, and I thought the kids really responded well. I’m just proud of their effort and how hard they played each possession for 32 minutes tonight.
“We had a lot of players step in in different moments. I loved our fight, our spirit and our enthusiasm.”
In last week’s loss to Cary-Grove in which they scored a season-low 17 points, Raethz said the Raiders (16-6, 10-1) couldn’t buy a bucket against the Trojans’ pressure defense.
Against Hampshire (14-10, 9-2), Huntley’s offense was much more efficient.
The Raiders took a 22-10 lead into halftime and grew their lead to 41-17 after three quarters.
McFadden knocked down four 3-pointers and grabbed 9 rebounds to lead Huntley. Junior forward Paula Strzelecki recorded a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, and junior guard Anna Campanelli tossed in 9 points. Alyssa Borzych, a freshman guard, added 8 points and two 3s, both coming at the end of the first quarter.
McFadden had all 14 of her points in the second half on 5-of-9 shooting. At one point she had 11 points during a 13-point stretch for the Raiders.
“My teammates really got my confidence up there,” McFadden said. “They’ve been there for me through it all, so that’s really nice. We knew as a team we would have come out strong. Coming into this one, we knew we needed to get into the flow in the game early.”
Huntley shot 33.3% (19 of 57) from the field while hold Hampshire to 25.7% (9 of 35). Raethz felt the Raiders’ defense helped set the tone.
Hampshire committed 17 turnovers to Huntley’s 9.
“[Hampshire] is a great team,” Raethz said. “We knew going into it, it was going to be a really tough test for us. I think both sides understood the magnitude of it with both teams being tied for first. I thought our pressure was great. We were really connected and we played five as one. We gave great help and had great on-ball pressure.
“I was really proud of our defense and our toughness. I think it started there for us tonight.”
Hampshire was led senior guard Ashley Herzing with seven points and two 3s. Senior guard Whitney Thompson had six points on two 3s, while Mikala Amegasse and Chloe Van Horn each tossed in four points.
Hampshire had won its previous eight FVC games before Wednesday’s loss. Huntley also beat Hampshire 43-42 in the teams’ first meeting on Dec. 1.
“They made more shots,” Whips coach Eric Samuelson said. “My kids never quit. The kids I had on the floor fought the whole time. We’re going to come back and get ready for Cary-Grove, who I think is playing really good basketball right now. I have a talented basketball team, and we’ll be ready for Cary-Grove.”
Strzelecki and the Raiders are happy to be back on the winning track.
“They’re a really tough team and one of the top in the conference,” Strzelecki said. “We just had the energy today. We wanted to come back and get better from our last game.”