Vietinghoff, Hampshire roll over DeKalb
ROCHELLE - Coaches preach and preach about how defense wins games.
The Hampshire girls basketball team simply practices what its coach preaches.
Holding DeKalb to a 10 of 42 shooting night with a defense the U.S. government would be proud to have, the Whip-Purs rolled to a 57-29 win over the Barbs Thursday night in the championship game of the Class 3A Rochelle regional.
Seventh-ranked Hampshire (28-1) moves on to the DeKalb sectional where the Whip-Purs will face Freeport (10-19) at 8:10 p.m. Monday. Freeport, which eliminated Hampshire in last year's sectional semifinals, beat Marengo 53-41 Thursday to win the Freeport regional. The regional title is Hampshire's second straight and the 13th in program history.
"Defense wins," said Hampshire senior Chrissy Heine after Thursday's victory. "Coach always says defense wins and that's a good philosophy to have. We played really well as a team tonight."
It didn't hurt that the Whips also shot the lights out Thursday. Junior Karla Vietinghoff was on fire from 3-point range, canning 6 of 7 from behind the line on her way to a game-high 20 points.
"I just kept shooting," said Vietinghoff. "Sometimes it didn't feel like I was open but they kept going in and the more comfortable I got the more I shot."
The Whip-Purs scrapped their way to a 10-9 lead after one quarter, but 3-pointers by Vietinghoff book ended a 10-0 run to start the second quarter and staked the Whips to a 20-9 lead. They were ahead 25-13 by halftime and DeKalb (19-11) never got closer in the second half as the Whips shot 20 of 37 for the game and 8 of 11 from 3-point range.
DeKalb made only 6 of 23 shots in the second half against a relentless defense that rose to the occasion even with junior standout Alex Dumoulin in foul trouble. Sophomore Michelle Dumoulin gave the Whips quality minutes with Alex Dumoulin on the bench.
"Our motto all year has been 'defense wins' and from there we branch out and play the rest of our game," said Hampshire coach Sue Ellett, whose team held its 14th opponent this season under 30 points, including DeKalb twice. "At halftime I said get me to 50 and we'll be in good shape. We came out with a goal and a focus in the second half. And to do it without the services of Alex Dumoulin for a lot of the night really says something."
What little suspense remained in the second half was erased when, leading 34-18, Hampshire went on an 11-0 run that included another Vietinghoff 3-pointer. That run put the Whips ahead 43-18 and left school administrators cleaning off another spot in the trophy case.
"In honor of the man who taught me everything I know about shooting - and we even have a drill named for him - yes, we shot the basketball well tonight," said Ellett, referring to former Whips coach Milt Awe, who was in attendance Thursday. "We shared the basketball and we created good shots.
"I just stayed out of their way today and let them play ball."
Heine scored 12 points for Hampshire and senior Cassie Dumoulin scored 11 points and had 8 rebounds. Sophomore Taylor White led DeKalb with 12 points, all on 3-pointers.