Hampshire falls to Woodstock North
Hampshire’s girls basketball team usually strives on its defense and strong guard play.
Woodstock North took both of those things away from the Whip-Purs in Tuesday’s Fox Valley Conference Fox Division game in Woodstock.
The Whips piled up the turnovers and the Thunder converted them into points taking the game 54-45.
“Our defense, we weren’t talking and moving like we usually do,” Hampshire forward Tiffany Bentley said. “We weren’t taking care of the ball, rushing passes and forcing things where they shouldn’t have gone.”
Hampshire (14-13, 7-5) trailed 12-3 in the first quarter, but battled back to within 14-12 when a Bentley (11 points) steal set up her basket on the other end of the floor on the opening play of the second period.
That’s as close as the Whips would get. North (15-11, 6-6) went on a 5-0 run capped off by a steal and bucket from Sami Ahr. The junior scored 12 of her game-high 17 points in the first half.
After Bentley’s make, Hampshire missed its next 10 shots before Jennifer Dumoulin (13 points, 8 rebounds) connected on a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left in the first half.
Ahr answered back with a putback off an offensive rebound.
Michelle Dumoulin (13 points, 4 assists) scored with 4 seconds left in the first half to cut the Thunder lead to 27-21, but Jennifer Dumoulin was called for a blocking foul with 1.5 seconds left in the first half. Haylee Nutter made both free-throws cushioning North’s lead to 29-21 at the half.
“Our defense didn’t come to play tonight,” Hampshire coach Ed Haugens said. “We gave up too many easy baskets.”
Hampshire started out the third quarter hot with scores from Jennifer Dumoulin and Elizabeth Panzica (8 rebounds) to come back to within 29-25. But just as quickly North answered back with a 7-0 run and Hampshire was never able to fully recover.
Hampshire turned the ball over 6 times in the third quarter and shot just 4 for 12 from the floor.
“We had a game plan and we all stuck with what we were supposed to do,” Thunder point guard Aleecia Braun said. “We knew their top scorers and how to stop them.”
Hampshire was able to have some early success against the Thunder’s zone by connecting from long range. Bentley and Jennifer Dumoulin each hit a pair of 3-pointes, which accounted for 4 of Hampshire 6 first-half baskets. In all 6 of the Whips’ 15 total baskets were 3-pointers.
“We’ve been pretty effective from outside lately,” Haugens said. “Lately, we’ve been hitting some 3-pointers. And we’ve been getting some good second-chance looks.”