Boys Basketball: Hampshire outplays Johnsburg
Updated: January 18, 2012 9:39PM
Former BNC East foes met in Johnsburg on Wednesday night, but this time as members of the Fox Valley Conference Fox Division. On this night it was Hampshire who was the better team as it beat Johnsburg 44-42.
Hampshire (9-8, 2-2) got off to a quick start to the game. The Whip-Purs led 10-2 just a few minutes in to the game, but would then go ice cold from the field. In the second quarter, the Whip-Purs only scored two points and both were from the foul line.
Hampshire coach Bob Barnett had seen enough and let his team know it at intermission.
“I pretty much did all the talking at half time and feel like I got the message across,” said Barnett. “Our first half defense was terrible and we were missing a lot of open looks.”
Even with such a horrible quarter, the Whip-Purs were only down five points at the half. Coach Barnett’s halftime message was obviously received by his players.
The Whip-Purs started the second half scoring the first nine points and it was a close game the rest of the night.
Hampshire’s Tyler Crater put his team up five points with 3:41 left and the Whip-Purs would never trail again.
Tyler Watzlawick led Hampshire with 17 points and nine rebounds.
“Coach really fired us up at halftime and I feel we took that to the floor,” said Watzlawick. “In the first half we were just going through the motions and had no intensity. As a senior I felt like I needed to lead the team in the second half.”
Johnsburg (6-10, 2-2) was led by TJ Sigmund and Kevin Dombrowski who each scored 13 points.
If Wednesday’s game would have been earlier in the season Hampshire probably would have found a way to lose. Winning a close game like this on the road shows how far the Whip-Purs have come.
“The basketball Gods still owe us one or two games after some of the close games we lost early this season,” said Barnett.
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