Second straight win for Hampshire

Hampshire might just be getting on a roll. After opening the season with 9 straight losses, the Whip-Purs’ girls basketball team won its second in a row by defeating Westminster Christian 46-40 in nomconference action in Hampshire.

Emma Benoit scored 19 points to lead the way for Hampshire. Claire Speweik nearly matched that with 16 points for Westminster, which fell to 9-4.

The Whips overcame a deficit, then showed some poise by holding off the Warriors down the stretch.

“The positive that we can take away from this game is that we were down at one point, and we battled back and got the win,” said Hampshire coach Ed Haugens. “We started out strong. Right now its just trying to play 4 quarters.”

After falling behind, Hampshire roared back to regain the lead, then held on through a tight fourth quarter. A short jumper by Nikki Dumoulin made it 40-36. A steal by the Warriors’ Kinsley Donahue led to a breakaway layup by Liz Meschewski to make it 40-38.

The teams traded baskets again before a layup by Lizzy Panzica made it 44-40 with under a minute left. Jen Dumoulin added 2 free throws for the final margin.

“We’re developing better chemistry,” said Benoit. “Earlier in the year we weren’t playing together as a team. We have a lot of different age groups on the team and we weren’t always together.”

Jen Dumoulin and Tricia Dumoulin added 10 points apiece for Hampshire.

Maddie Versluys scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds for Westminster, while McKaila Hays added 6.

A big plus for Hampshire was free throw shooting. Benoit made 7-of-9 from the line and Tricia Dumoulin added 2-of-3. The performance marked a big improvement over some earlier games. For example, the Whips made just 12 of 27 in a 12-point loss to Burlington Central.

“We’ve put in a lot of hard work on that since that game,” said Haugens.