Boys Basketball: Hampshire hangs on to top Johnsburg

Updated: February 14, 2012 9:52PM

When Johnsburg and Hampshire first met back in January, it was a tightly contested matchup that Hampshire was able to hang on and win. On Tuesday the Skyhawks and Whip-Purs met for their second matchup of the season, and game two was very similar as Hampshire hung on for a 56-49 victory in a Fox Valley Conference Fox division battle at Hampshire High School.

The first half was as evenly played as it gets. Both teams hit shots, turned the ball over, and went periods where they couldn’t score. This was evident by a 21-21 tie at the half.

Whatever Bob Barnett told his team at the break seemed to work, as Hampshire came out in the third quarter on fire and started the quarter on a 16-4 run. Hampshire (13-10, 6-4) led by as many as 18 points in the quarter thanks in part to the shooting of Tyler Crater.

“I felt as a team we handled the ball better in the third quarter”, said Crater. “My teammates gave me some great passes and I had some open looks and was able to hit some shots.”

Down by 15 points heading in to the fourth quarter the Skyhawks (8-16, 4-7) didn’t give up. Johnsburg started hitting from three-point range and pulled to within six points with 3:34 left. That would be the closest the Skyhawks would get though as Hampshire sealed the game from the foul line in the final moments.

“I thought we needed to be strong with the ball tonight and I thought we did that in the third quarter,” said Barnett. “We turned the ball over way too much in the fourth quarter, and tried to get too fancy with the ball. Mental mistakes also hurt us, but luckily we were able to hang on for the win.”

Hampshire was led by Tyler Watzlawick with 18 points. Tyler Crater added 11 points for the Whip-Purs.

Johnsburg was led by Kevin Dombrowski with 10 points.

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