Turnovers doom Hampshire
Throughout much of the first half of Hampshire's matchup against Rockford East in Pool B play at the 83rd Chuck Dayton Holiday Tournament, Whip-Purs' coach Bob Barnett sat on the bench merely speechless.
His Whip-Purs were just as quiet.
After committing 14 turnovers in the first half because of an aggressive Rockford East press, Hampshire trailed by 15 at halftime as Hampshire searched for a way to advance the ball past half court.
Eventually Hampshire awakened, outscoring the E-Rabs 24-12 in the second half, engineered by the dominant post duo of Shane Hernandez and Tyler Watzlawick. East's lead was cut to 1 with 1:41 in the fourth quarter but after several attempts to grab the lead in the final minute, Pat Azizi's left corner game-tying miss at the buzzer ultimately spelled out a 49-46 Whip-Purs loss in DeKalb Tuesday.
“The problem we had in the first half was 14 turnovers,” Barnett said. “You can't keep putting yourself in the same position to create a turnover. We're having a real difficult time with that right now and I don't know why.”
Hampshire (6-3) began strong by going to Watzlawick and Hernandez (12 points) down in the post but the Whip-Purs couldn't stop East's Deontry Austin inside. His 8 points in the paint were the main reason why Hampshire trailed by 7 into the second quarter.
Rockford East's press led to more Hampshire problems. The lead became 15 on a steal and a jam by East's leading scorer Steve McNease (14 points, 7 for 21 shooting) late in the half. The agitating E-Rabs (8-3) had 10 steals total for the game.
“It was that pressure in the first half,” Barnett said. “When you're up 15 in a half, you're going to come out a little bit stale. Give our kids credit, we had it cut down to 6 in the third, we ended up being down 7.”
Hampshire protected the ball and went back to Hernandez and Watzlawick, both scoring hoops out of halftime cutting the lead to 11. A 13-4 run made it 41-35 with 2:45 left on Watzlawick's cut to the hoop.
East shot a dismal 4 for 16 in the third, which carried into the fourth as it scored only 4 points hitting just 1 shot. Hernandez' putback with 6:21 left to cut the lead to 3. Azizi's lead to Hernandez with 3:35 left made it 46-44 East. Hernandez earned a double-double with 11 rebounds.
“It was really the guards in the second half that could get the ball to us, and me and Shane went to work,” said Watzlawick, who scored 16 points and had 9 rebounds. His hook with 1:41 brought East's lead to 1.
“We had plenty of time, I think we had a 1:09 when we missed the first one inside, (Watzlawick) missed the second one, that's why I called that last timeout. We were going to try get a little flare screen for (Azizi) to see if he could get an open look,” Barnett said.
Barnett drew up a play for Azizi to tie it, but Azizi had a tough time getting a shot off in the left corner. Eventually he danced free along the baseline and chucked it just short at the buzzer.
“I just came out kind of flat. I seemed pretty good in warmups. I guess they weren't falling in the game,” Azizi said.
Hampshire, which shot 52 percent and outrebounded East 31-17, will play Chicago Vocational at 10:30 a.m. today.