Cary-Grove downs Hampshire

With Cary-Grove's all-time leading scorer Jason Gregoire now a freshman at Illinois Wesleyan University, Cary-Grove boys basketball coach Ralph Schuetzle is looking for players to step up.

The 12th-year Trojans coach may have found what he was looking for.

Danny Schmidt provided the inside presence powering his way to 19 points while Adam Loch scored 15 with four 3-pointers to lead the Trojans to a 59-48 win over Hampshire in Fox Valley Conference crossover action in Cary Tuesday night.

"We lost a lot of scoring from last year," said Schuetzle. "We need kids to score like Adam and Danny. Both have really improved their games and give us good senior leadership. This was a good win against a good Hampshire team.,"

Schmidt added 10 rebounds and 3 assists to his game-high point total.

"We just try to run our offense as well as we can, play together and get good shots.," said Schmidt. "The guards did a great job of getting me the ball in great position to score."

Zach Beagureau added 10 points with a 3-pointer for the winners.

After a first quarter with 5 lead changes and Cary-Grove (2-2) holding a slim 13-11 load after 8 minutes, the Trojans were able to take control of the game in the second quarter.

Starting the quarter with an 8-0 run, the Trojans were able to turn a 2-point lead into a 21-11 advantage with 4:45 remaining in the first half. The surge was led by a pair of treys from Loch and a 10-footer in the lane by Schmidt off a pass from Quinn Celske as the Trojans led 27-17 at halftime.

Cary-Grove's biggest lead of the game was 41-23 with 2:12 left in the third quarter on a conventional 3-pointer by Alexander Bear.

Hampshire (1-3), which made only 4-of-23 from 3-point range for 17 percent, didn't quit. On a trey by Luke Tuttle, Hampshire got to within 8, 44-36, with 4:42 remaining. But the Whip-Purs couldn't get any closer.

Deion Garcia paced Hampshire with 10 points and Danny Duchaj scored 9 with 8 rebounds.

"I love this team," said Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse. "They are great kids who never quit. We average 10 3-pointers made a game and we had good looks but we couldn't make enough shots. We are still working through some things. It is early in the process."