The last thing Hampshire needed in its showdown for the Fox Valley Conference lead at Dundee-Crown Friday was to see leading scorer Kelby Bannerman head to the bench with three fouls in the first quarter.

Scouting Fox Valley girls basketball postseason

Rockton Hononegah denies Hampshire in regional final.

Kamsi Nwogu ended her season on a high note, scoring a career-high 32 points for Huntley in a 62-56 loss to Huntley on Tuesday in the Class 4A Rockford Jefferson regional.

The stage was set for the Hampshire girls basketball team to do something special Friday night, and the Whip-Purs delivered.

Though Huntley has a losing record, Hampshire coach Mike Featherly realized the Red Raiders on Senior Night would give the Whip-Purs all they could handle Wednesday night.

There’s only one week left in the regular season before the Class 4A and 3A postseason begins, but there’s plenty of drama still to play out in what have been tight Fox Valley, Upstate Eight and DuKane Conference races.

Hampshire has one game left in the first half of the Fox Valley Conference season, and it’s a big one.The Whip-Purs travel to Dundee-Crown Friday night with first place on the line, the first game in a girls/boys doubleheader with both games having major conference race implications.Hampshire (18-4, 7-0) stayed perfect in the FVC by beating Huntley 46-28 on Tuesday at the Purple Palace, holding the Red Raiders to 4 points in the third quarter to extend a 21-14 halftime lead to 15 points.“They’ve (D-C) got a good team like us and we’re looking forward to it,” Hampshire senior guard Ally Cermak said. “We’ve been playing really hard and our defense has been carrying us through.”Dundee-Crown (15-5, 7-0) defeated Hampshire at the Chargers’ Christmas tournament on Dec. 28, 46-39. The Whip-Purs played without starting forward Sarah Bowen.Against Huntley, Cermak led the Whip-Purs with 17 points and 4 steals while sophomore Kelby Bannerman contributed 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocked shots.“We’re learning how to play with each player and our strengths and weaknesses,” Bannerman said. “And the we over me situation where we play as a team and not as an individual and it’s everyone against the other team.”Bannerman and Cermak got the Whip-Purs off to a quick 7-0 lead. Cermak fed Bannerman for an inside score 20 seconds into the game, then hit the first of her two 3-pointers before Bannerman’s steal and layup led to an early timeout by Huntley coach Steve Raethz. Huntley (6-12, 3-5) battled back behind sophomore Kamsi Nwogu who scored 10 of her team’s 14 points in the first half. The Red Raiders got as close as 18-14; Hampshire responded with the final 3 points of the first half and a 12-1 run to start the second half to make it 33-18. Huntley turned the ball over 10 times in the third quarter.Cermak got to the free-throw line 9 times, sinking seven.“She’s done a really good job this year,” Hampshire coach Mike Featherly said. “Knocking down 3s, taking care of the ball, doing a nice job of attacking. She gets in space and draws fouls. She’s had a real good senior year.”Nwogu paced Huntley with 11 points and 7 rebounds. The next closest teammate scored 4 points.“She’s been a consistent scorer for us and I thought she kept us in it,” said Raethz, whose team has had terrible luck with injuries. “It’s not just the two ACLs, Syd Novak just came back after being out a month and a half. And we’ve had some other nagging injuries. We’re just doing our best to piece it together. We’ve shown some flashes of playing really well and really hard. We met Hampshire’s intensity in the first half but we just didn’t come out as well as we needed to to start the third quarter. We need to put two halves together. It’s kind of been a pattern for us lately.”

It wasn’t exactly a tale of two halves. Maybe more like a quarter-and-a-half and the rest of the game.

Montini freshman Tatiana Thomas is this week’s Daily Herald MVP for girls basketball.

Batavia, Huntley and Aurora Christian were among the Fox Valley area winners in girls basketball action Saturday.

Hampshire’s Sarah Bowen scored 8 points with 6 rebounds Tuesday against Jacobs, but her biggest responsibility was on the defensive end.

The Chicagoland Invitational Showcase is back for the fifth year. And it’s bigger and better than ever with teams ready from three different states tipping off on Dec. 14 at Fremd High School.

Hampshire coach Mike Featherly glanced at the halftime stat sheet and saw that sophomore center Kelby Bannerman had only 1 basket, 3 shot attempts and 4 points.