Hampshire comes back to beat Crystal Lake South
As the season's gone on for Hampshire junior Jessica Heine, she's seen her role off the bench increase for the Whip-Purs' girls basketball team.
Tuesday Heine gave a great example why she's been more deserving during a 36-32 comeback win over Crystal Lake South at The Swamp in Crystal Lake.
Not only did Heine make a big key defensive stop underneath South's hoop late, she converted her only bucket of the game into an old fashioned 3-point play with 3:55 left in the fourth quarter which helped Hampshire tie it at 29.
Her offensive rebound putback became the turning point for the Whips', who outscored CL South 12-6 during the final 8 minutes in a gritty Fox Valley Conference road win.
"She did a really nice job coming off the bench," said Hampshire coach Mike Featherly, whose team shot just 28.5 percent and struggled with 14 turnovers. "She's been getting more minutes and doing a nice job with it. She's taken advantage of the opportunity."
Heine's opportunity came after South (2-7, 1-4) went to the free throw line on 2 straight possessions to take a 3-point lead. After an inbound underneath Hampshire's hoop and a Lauren Herrmann missed 3 from the top of the key off with 4 minutes left, Heine grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled as she laid it off the glass as Hampshire (5-6, 3-2) took control from there.
"There wasn't anyone in the area and I went to the ball and put it back up right away," Heine said. "(Coach) has been talking about a lot the past couple days about how we need to work on the little things so that's what we've been emphasizing on."
Those little things also came in the form of big free throws as Hampshire, which hit just 2 field goals in the fourth, converted 7 down the stretch. Herrmann, who finished with a game-high 17 points, hit 4 in the final 2 minutes to keep the Gators at bay as Hampshire finished with a 13-for-18 clip from the stripe.
"We practice a lot of free throws," said Herrmann, who also had 6 rebounds. "We know to take our time and to not overthink it."
Those little things made up for a poor first quarter for the Whip-Purs, who watched South get off to a hot start. Ava Sevcik led the Gators with 10 points but Maddie Bush (4 rebounds) fired away with 7 of her 9 points during the first 8 minutes.
South took a 14-6 lead into the second quarter and led by as many as 11 before going cold. It didn't help Herrmann warmed up with three 3-pointers to close within 1 of South at the half. But South finished 5-for-20 from the floor the final 3 quarters and shot a 33.3 percent clip overall.
"Unfortunately that's been our M.O. this season," said Gators coach Mark Mucha. "We've started OK and struggled to finish. It's going to happen with a young team."