Hampshire falls to Moline in DeKalb semis

DeKALB — The fortunate breaks the Hampshire boys basketball team had gotten during its run at the 85th Chuck Dayton Holiday Tournament at DeKalb went the other way Thursday night.

After the Whip-Purs’ Tyler Crater tied the game at 50-50 with 15 seconds remaining, Moline’s Brandon Vice had an offensive rebound and putback with 1 second remaining to give the Maroons a 52-50 victory in the tournament semifinals.

“One bounce went their way and didn’t go ours,” Hampshire coach Bob Barnett said. “We’ve had three bounces go our way already in this tournament — wins by 1, 2 and 3. We lose by two, it happens.”

The loss snaps the Whip-Purs’ 11-game win streak. They will have a rematch with Marmion (5-9) in the third-place game at 5 p.m. today. Hampshire (11-2) beat the Cadets, 63-60, in pool-play action last Friday. Hampshire will need to shoot better today than it did Thursday. The Whip-Purs struggled to open each quarter and went just 10-of-63 (30 percent) from the floor. They were 2-of-10 in the opening 5 minutes and missed their first five shots of the second quarter. Hampshire was just 2-of-13 in the first 7 minutes of the third quarter as the Maroons (7-6) turned a 5-point deficit into a 7-point lead, 38-31. The Whip-Purs also missed 12 of their first 13 shots in the fourth quarter.

“It was a tough game,” Crater said. “We didn’t lose that game at the end of the game. We lost that game to start out the second half when they went on that run.”

Despite the shooting problems the Whip-Purs had a chance to win. They were within 1, 48-47, and had the ball with under 45 seconds remaining. A costly turnover led to 2 free throws by Derrick Stabler and gave Moline a 50-47 lead. Crater hit a 3-pointer with 15 seconds to go to tie the game at 50-50. After a Maroons timeout, Drew Owens brought the ball up and drove down the lane. His shot was no good, but the rebound went right to Vice for the easy putback and a trip to the title game for Moline.

Only three players scored for the Whip-Purs. Shane Hernandez scored a game-high 21 points and had 14 rebounds, 11 offensive. Crater had 16 points. Ryan Cork added 13 points and 7en rebounds.

“That’s an issue,” Barnett said of the lack of scoring balance. “We can’t do that and win. We have to have some support off the bench and even the other two starters.”

Stabler led the Maroons with 18 points. Owens had 15 points, including 8 during the key third-quarter run.