Girls basketball/Fox Valley roundup
Hampshire 47, Westminster Christian 43: Sophomore forward Emma Benoit single-handedly took over in the Whip-Purs’ nonconference road win over the undefeated champions of the Northeastern Athletic Conference. Benoit registered a season-high 26 points on 11 shots, 11 points coming in the third quarter, along with 18 rebounds to earn the Whips (10-13) their third-straight win. Payton DeChant also chipped in with 14 points. Westminster’s McKaila Hays had the hot hand with 14 points on 3 3-pointers, but the Warriors (20-4) only managed 3 points in the fourth quarter, 2 coming from Claire Speweik who totaled 11 points.
Crystal Lake South 66, McHenry 49: Chanel Fanter (22 points), Rachel Rasmussen (19 points) and Sara Mickow (18 points) were responsible for 59 of the Gators’ points in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division romp. South (14-11, 6-4) led the Warriors by 3 early but turned on the jets as Fanter and Rasmussen each nailed 3 3-pointers while Mickow hauled in 21 rebounds. CLS owned the rebounding edge 37-24 and a 50 percent clip (7 3s made) from downtown.
Willows Academy 58, Harvest Christian 47: Kylee Knox poured in 21 points on the road but it wasn’t enough to earn a nonconference win for the Lions in their regular-season finale. Rachel Oostdyk also registered 12 points in the loss. Harvest (14-10), which had won 5 of its last 6 coming in, enters as the No. 2 seed in the Class 1A Hinckley-Big Rock regional and will take on No. 3 seed Elgin Academy in a semifinal Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Geneva 64, Elgin 26: The Maroons (6-19, 1-10) couldn’t get off the schneid in this Upstate State Eight River battle, but watched Melanie Berg and Anna Eckholm score 9 points apiece in their eighth-straight defeat.