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Jefferson too much for Hampshire

Rockford Jefferson was looking to make amends.

Unfortunately for the Hampshire boys basketball team, the J-Hawks' source of redemption came at he Whip-Purs' expense in the championship game of the Leland Strombom Thanksgiving Tournament at Sycamore on Saturday night.

The Jefferson formidable one-two punch of forward Montel Brown and guard ML Moore accounted for 76 percent of the J-Hawks' offense in their 67-56 victory.

Brown had game highs of 28 points and 12 rebounds; Moore drained five 3-pointers in adding 23 points.

Hampshire (3-1), which never led, had its three-game winning streak snapped in the process.

"We knew that going in (Brown) was going to be tough," Hampshire coach Bob Barnett said. "We'll learn from (the loss). We'll get better. We have a lot of things to work on. We have to learn we can't stand around on the perimeter against teams like this."

"When we came here last year, we lost the championship game," Brown said. "We had to get it done this time."

Jefferson (4-0) began the game by scoring 16 of the first 21 points. Hampshire would be in catch-up mode for the rest of the night.

The Whips, who had two all-tournament selections in Drew Doran and Matt Bridges, would come no closer than 6 points after the J-Hawks' game-opening salvo.

Bridges, who paced the Whips with 19 points, tried to keep Hampshire within striking distance with his 2 second-quarter field goals.

But the Whips, who trailed 31-21 at the break, could not overcome 7 miscues in the opening half.

"I think it was the turnovers that just killed us," said Bridges. "I think playing a team like Jefferson will help us for the future."

There would be one unmistakable trend for the remainder of the contest. Jefferson always seemed to have a reply to one of the Whips' mini-runs.

"When we go on a run, we need to get some stops," Bridges said. "It seemed like every time they were hitting big shots when they needed to."

Breenen Woods scored all 11 of his points after the intermission for the Whips. The sophomore forward dialed home three 3-pointers; his final one with three-plus minutes remaining in the third quarter reduced the Whips' deficit to 43-37.

But Brown and Moore scored on consecutive possessions for Jefferson and Hampshire would come no closer than 7 points the remainder of the night.

"Every time we cut (the deficit) back to six or seven, somebody (from Jefferson) would come down and down a three," said Barnett.

Doran narrowly missed double figures in finishing with 9 points. Hampshire post Daniel Duchaj hit two impressive jump hooks in the third quarter to accentuate his 6-point night.

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