Whips fall in home finale

Richmond-Burton guard Brad Johnstin prevented Hampshire from enjoying a storybook ending in its final home game at the Purple Palace Saturday afternoon.

Johnstin, who was held to 5 points when Hampshire defeated R-B by 13 points in Richmond on Jan. 11., instead crafted a fairy tale performance of his own from the opening tip.

The senior sank all five 3-pointers he attempted in the first quarter and connected on 7 of 8 attempts from behind the 3-point arc in the game to lead Richmond-Burton to a 54-43 victory in the Big Northern-East.

"I just kept going farther and farther out," Johnstin said. "They'd come out a little farther and I'd take a few more steps out. In the first half I don't know if they kept losing me or what, but it seemed like I kept getting a clean look at the hoop, so I let it go."

Johnstin was too open, according to Hampshire coach Bob Barnett.

"I don't care where he's at, you contest him," Barnett said. "We went over that because he's one of those streaky shooters. Over at their place they were 3 of 24 from (3-point range). I don't care where he's at, somebody's got to know where he's at. Then he's boom, boom, boom."

Hampshire (11-11, 5-4), trailed 21-8 after one quarter as a result of Johnstin's consistent stroke and faced a 28-16 deficit at the half.

After falling behind by as much as 16 points in the third quarter, the Whip-Purs clawed their way back into the game with an 8-0 run to close the period. T.J. Burzak scored 2 inside buckets during that spree, which included a layup by junior guard James Goebbert and a transition basket by junior g;uard Evan Brenner following a Goebbert steal.

The Whips trimmed the Rockets' lead to 5 points when Burzak made a short baseline jumper and converted a free throw for a three-point play with 42 seconds remaining, but R-B sank 12 of 12 shots from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to preserve the victory.

Burzak, playing in his final home game, finished with a game-high 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting.

"I played here my whole life, including in Junior Whips," Burzak said of Hampshire's gym, which opened in 1978. "I kind of wish we had ended with a win, but we made some mistakes and just couldn't finish it."

Dundee-Crown 46, McHenry 38: Dundee-Crown may have had one of its worst shooting nights of the season.

Not only did McHenry's defense force Dundee-Crown to shoot 15-for-41 from the field, McHenry hung around to give the Chargers a fight.

At the same time, Dundee-Crown (11-9, 4-2) kept the Warriors from shooting any better (15-for-47).

Dundee-Crown's ability to hit 8 more free throws and hold the Warriors without a basket in the final two minutes earned the Chargers a victory in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game in McHenry.

Dundee-Crown, which lost Jeff Beck to foul trouble in the first quarter, needed a win badly, and got a spark from David Bernard.

"On the bench, I was encouraging everybody, trying to help Dave out, tell him that he can do it, he can be the leader out there and he did a great job scoring." said Beck.

Bernard scored 6 of his game-high 16 points in the third quarter. He tapped in his own miss that put Chargers up 8 with 6 minutes remaining in the game.

"I just thought with (Jeff) in foul trouble early, I had to pick it up," Bernard said.

Bernard hit 4 critical free throws during a stretch where McHenry (6-15, 0-4) made a late run. The Warriors cut the lead to 3 on Zach Borter's 3-point play with less than 3 minutes left.

Soon after, Beck answered right back with a layup that put the Chargers up 5, asserting his leadership and giving the frustrated Chargers some cushion at the end.

"We got enough from Jeff, David was big for us. We got big bench play from Eric Reams. It was just one of those nights," said Chargers coach Lance Huber. "McHenry did a great job of taking us out of what we wanted to do. We couldn't get a rhythm going and it was just a tough night for us."

-- Steve Nichols

Huntley 58, Grayslake North 42: Just as Grayslake North's boys basketball teams was about to make a run at visiting Huntley on Saturday night in a Fox Valley Conference Fox Division contest, the Knights had the lights turned out on them.

Not by Huntley, but literally.

With 6:07 to play in regulation and Huntley holding a 39-29 advantage, the Grayslake North gym went dim. Several of the lights were on a timer and, because it was a weekend, they shut off. Unfortunately for the Knights, the run ended, too.

Huntley ripped off 10-3 spurt after the lights went on and pulled away to a 58-42 win over Grayslake North.

The victory kept the Red Raiders unbeaten in the Fox Division at 5-0 while improving to 15-6 overall. Grayslake North fell to 5-15, 0-5 in league play.

"It obviously could have gone two ways," said Huntley coach Marty Manning. "Both teams could have gone cold, but we were fortunate to get on a little run after that."

The run started and continued with senior Tom Giordano and junior Jordan Neukirch. Two of the Red Raiders' top scorers filled up the basket in the second half. Neukirch scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the third quarter to help Huntley build on a 24-14 halftime lead.

Giordano did his damage in the fourth quarter, scoring all but 2 of his points in the final eight minutes.

"I sat out most of the second quarter in foul trouble and the coaches told me to be more aggressive around the basket in the second half," Neukirch said. "I have worked a lot in practice about getting more shots around the basket and being more aggressive."

Before the lights went out, Grayslake finally started to shoot the lights out -- or at least shoot better.

After the Red Raiders used an 8-2 spurt to blow the lead open in the second half, North used a 9-3 burst at the start of the fourth quarter to pull close.

The big shot came from junior Rollin Idlas, who drained a long 3-pointer to cut the margin to 39-29 with 7:10 to go in the fourth.

"This game was real similar to the first time we played," said North coach Todd Grunloh. "Huntley is a team that plays great defense. They have five guys that can really guard you unlike other teams that have a couple, then you can have your scorers get going."

North had two players in double figures, as seniors Clay Hendricksen and Tony Herman finished with 10 points each.

-- Jeff Newton

South Elgin 48, DeKalb 47: How did South Elgin overcome a 13-point deficit Saturday night? Pretty much in the usual ways: the Storm stepped up its pressure defense, found lanes to drive to the basket, crashed the boards harder, and got the opponent in foul trouble. South Elgin did those things well enough to pull out a 48-47 nonconference victory against DeKalb at Chuck Dayton Gymnasium.

The Storm (11-11) railed 19-6 late in the second quarter and appeared on the verge of getting blown out. But with 6-foot-10 Jordan Threloff on the bench with 2 fouls, the Storm scored the last 5 points of the first half. Then, with Adam Hodge leading the way, South Elgin used runs of 11-2 and 14-2 to take over the lead.

Hodge had 17 points and 8 rebounds, including some clutch free throws down the stretch. Joshua Glenn added 8 points. South Elgin's own big man, 6-9 Daniel Lopez, began to assert himself after the break as well. He scored all 7 of his points in the second half and helped neutralize Threloff.

"((The difference was ) just our pressure with our trapping, guarding the ball better, and doing a better job with (De Kalb guard Jon Umoren) out there," said South Elgin coach Chaz Taft. "He was doing too much creating, getting guys the ball. That's what the first half was. It was him feeding other players, so (the difference) was concentrating on making sure we concentrated on make sure they're stopping the ball and getting deflections."

"They had to come at us one way," said Hodge. "If they take away our size, then we knock down the shot outside, attack with our quicker guards. Once I was able to utilize the middle, that opened up a lot of open shots for our 3-point shooters and for Lopez."

South Elgin led by as many as 7 after its second big run. But the Storm missed 8 of 14 fourth-quarter free throws to let DeKalb climb back into it.

With South Elgin leading 47-45, Hodge missed 2 free throws, but Glenn corralled the rebound. Hodge got fouled again and made 1. Umoren, who led the Barbs with 15 points, had 2 shots to tie, but missed both. After the second miss, the Storm had the ball out of bounds with less than a second left. DeKalb's Tyler Smith stole the inbounds pass and laid it in at the buzzer, but it wasn't enough.

Threloff finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks, but had just 3 points in the second half while sitting for long periods with foul trouble.

Stephen Carter scored 6 points off the bench for South Elgin.

-- Allen Oshinski

Quincy Notre Dame 61, St. Edward 56: Brett Manning scored 24 points and Josh Dix added 17 but St. Edward (8-15) fell in this nonconference game in Quincy.

CL South 63, Woodstock 62: Steven Rogers scored 25 points and Eric Wilde 16 as South (11-10, 1-4)) won this Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game. Wesley Evans added 10 points for the Gators.