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Crystal Lake South rolls past Hampshire

The Crystal Lake South boys basketball players eased down the deserted hallway at Hampshire High School cool as could be after Tuesday's 70-37 Fox Valley Conference road win.

One guy held a portable speaker above his head like John Cusack's character in "Say Anything" while the others traded lyrics from the low-key R&B song they were grooving to as they disappeared around a corner and headed for the bus.

Relaxed, happy and riding a 2-game winning streak for the first time since November, it was a good night to be a Gator.

"It's really nice," CL South junior forward Tyler Haskin said after scoring a team-best 15 points, "especially coming from the (Jacobs) Christmas tournament and not doing so well. Coming back like this feels nice."

Crystal Lake South (7-10, 3-3) had lost 5 out of 6 until last Friday's 66-53 win over rival Crystal Lake Central. The Gators won their second straight by sinking their shots against the Whip-Purs.

CL South was on target from start to finish, including 11 of 20 attempts from 3-point range. Junior Luke Nolan set the tone on South's first possession by draining the first of his four 3-pointers. The deluge continued through the fourth quarter when junior Rrahim Sadiku came off the bench to swish a pair of shots from long range.

Why were the Gators getting such good looks?

"Outside ball movement and us moving around off the ball," said Nolan, who was responsible for 4 of his team's 20 assists.

Crystal Lake South made 26 of 57 attempts from the field (45.6 percent).

"It's always good when shots are going in," CL South coach Matt LePage said. "It sets your defense and gets you juiced up down there. I thought we rode the momentum on the defensive end because we were making shots. That simple."

It wasn't the showing Hampshire (4-14, 1-5) had hoped for after an encouraging weekend at the Burlington Central MLK Tournament, where the Whips gave the once-beaten hosts a run for their money before succumbing 70-68. Tuesday's game was Hampshire's fifth in five days and sixth in seven days.

"Not much left in the tank," said Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse, whose team shot 26 percent (12 of 46). "It's extremely frustrating but as a coach you try to see the bigger picture and try not to focus on one game. It's hard when you don't feel everyone is committing to executing because they're starting to feel tired and sorry for themselves, but you have to continue to be placed in those moments so you can learn from the experience."

Junior guard Tre Powell led Hampshire with 15 points and 7 rebounds and 6-foot-6 senior center Nate Gomez finished with 10 points.

Senior Matt Meyers scored 10 points and juniors Kyle Leva and Blake Kuffel contributed 8 points apiece for the Gators.

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