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Hampshire overtakes Crystal Lake South in 4th quarter

JD Shaw's new role is suiting the Hampshire senior just fine.

A starter the past two seasons, Shaw has shifted to a bench role this season. He provided the Whip-Purs quite a spark in Fox Valley Conference action Wednesday, scoring a team-high 16 points with 5 rebounds in a 61-55 win over Crystal Lake South.

"I missed this summer because I didn't have the right mindset but I came back with the right mindset and just want to start a wining attitude here in Hampshire," said Shaw, who drained four 3-pointers. "I like coming off the bench. It's less pressure. I get to play my game out there."

Shaw wasn't the only Whip-Purs reserve to make an impact. Junior Jackson Milison added 11 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals.

The Whip-Purs' bench outscored the Gators 27-6.

"We're a deep team," Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse said. "We feel we have a pretty steady rotation and start to ride the hot hand in the second half, who's playing well, and then look to do some offensive and defensive rotations and play to our players' strengths."

Shaw and Milison made their impact early and often. They combined for 17 points in the first half as the Whip-Purs (3-3, 2-0) built a 33-28 halftime lead.

Hampshire scored the final 7 points of the first half on a layup by Collin Woods, Shaw's 3 and then a steal and layup by Woods that he made while getting knocked down just before the buzzer sounded.

Crystal Lake South (5-2, 1-1) responded by outscoring Hampshire 18-10 in the third quarter to lead 46-43 going to the fourth. The Gators opened the second half on a 10-2 run capped by Tyler Miller's jumper for a 38-35 lead.

Miller, who led all scorers with 20 points, ended the quarter with a pair of free throws and tallied 9 points in the quarter.

Hampshire took the lead for good 50-48 on Milison's 3 with 5:45 remaining, the final of 19 lead changes or ties. Kyle Johnson followed with a corner 3, then Shaw made a pair of free throws to make it 55-48, the biggest lead for either team.

After a Miller 3, Shaw found Justin Anderson open inside for an easy lay-in, and Milison followed with an assist to Shaw inside for a 59-53 lead with a minute to go.

"We share the ball well," Whitehouse said. "We talked all week about hammering that opposite diagonal and we were able to hit it a few times."

Johnson and Woods also reached double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Hampshire plays Jacobs on Friday.

"We didn't put our heads down," Whitehouse said of the fourth quarter comeback. "We knew we could play basketball, we could beat this team. We need to execute and get stops defensively. We hunkered down and executed our switches better. I thought we did a great job controlling the glass in the fourth quarter and became more patient on offense."

Hampshire missed 3 free throws in the final minute but grabbed the offensive rebound twice. The Whips outrebounded the Gators 35-21 led by Anderson's 6.

Matt Reall added 11 points and 6 rebounds for the Gators who return to action Saturday against Cary-Grove.

"We needed to have that third, fourth option pick it up in the fourth when they started guarding Tyler a little harder," Gators coach Matt LePage said. "We have to have multiple threats.

"It was a heck of a basketball game. Two good teams going at it. I thought they made some big shots in the fourth and we got a little tired. I needed to sub a little more and we just made some mental mistakes that comes with fatigue."

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