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Prairie Ridge pulls away from Hampshire

Not many teams with a spotless conference record and very few losses overall will admit a matchup problem with a team like Hampshire, which has struggled at times this season.

But Prairie Ridge boys basketball coach Corky Card respected the Whip-Purs' athleticism after beating them by just 6 in Hampshire last month, and he wanted to dictate the pace and take the middle away to improve to 7-0 in the Fox Valley Conference Fox Division. His Wolves (16-3) ultimately did in a 68-44 win over Hampshire Friday in Crystal Lake to get their sixth-straight win, which snapped the Whips' 2-game win streak. And it was done so the way Card wanted.

"They really have all the pieces when you take a look at things," Card said. "They have a lightning quick point guard, a big off guard that can score and shoot, bigs that can shoot and rebound. They're really a matchup problem for us so we really wanted to try to speed the game up. And we have a lot of kids who can play and get up and down with them."

The Wolves used a 10-man rotation and feverishly raced out to a 17-4 advantage in the first quarter thanks to a trap that suffocated the Whips (4-12, 2-5) into 7 turnovers early. It also didn't help Hampshire that PR sank five 3-pointers in that stretch as senior guard Chris Bradshaw sank 2 of his 3 treys en route to 23 points along with 2 steals.

"We didn't expect that pressure, we just came out a little flat and didn't know how to handle it," said Hampshire guard Luke Tuttle, who had a team-high 9 points, while Deion Garcia added 8. "They had a good press on us and during the first half and we didn't have anyone flashing to the middle or rushing to the side or trying to find the gap."

Hampshire totaled 27 turnovers, including 15 in the second half and spotted PR a lead by as many as 28 in the fourth. The Wolves sank 8 from deep and shot 47.2 percent from the field as Payton Otto chipped in with 12 points while Brian Dorn and Kyle Loeding added 8 each. PR also added 30 points in the paint off 15 layups.

But PR didn't blow the roof off as the score would suggest until late. Hampshire closed to within 8 with 4:48 left in the second quarter on Danny Duchaj's layup, and a 10-4 run to begin the third as the Whips attacked the rim retained that 8-point cushion. Tuttle rebounded back a miss and Duchaj (6 points) answered an Otto jumper with his own in the left corner with 4:56 left to cut the Wolves' lead to 42-34. Hampshire outscored PR 14-11 in the quarter and forced the Wolves into 6 of their 13 turnovers during that stretch.

"We were tired of getting beat up out there and that's where all of our energy came from," Tuttle said. "We regrouped at halftime and we figured out how to attack (the middle) that and gave us the run."

The run however was short-lived, as Bradshaw sank his final 3 for an 11-point lead on PR's next possession while Dorn dealt the fatal blow on a putback at the buzzer for a 47-36 lead. The Wolves then coasted for a 17-0 run to start the fourth as Whips went 1-for-12 the final 8 minutes to finish with a 37.5 percent clip from the field.

"Once we got our legs under us and figured out the speed and the intensity of the game, then we were fine," Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse said. "But then we had to put forth so much effort to get back into the game, one play turns into the fast break the other way and it's a five-point swing and they were back in double digits."

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