Hampshire smooth in win over Palatine
The Hampshire girls basketball team's offense ran like a model of efficiency in Saturday afternoon's home nonconference game against Palatine.
The Whip-Purs carved up the Pirates' primarily zone defense with crisp interior passing, shooting a robust 60 percent from the field to record a 48-34 victory.
Despite spending most of the second quarter on the bench with two fouls, Hampshire's 6-foot-1 senior Emma Benoit ended up on the receiving end of many of those passes, hitting 8 of 11 shots in a game-high 19-point performance.
Junior guard Rachel Dumoulin connected on three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points and 5 assists while senior Nikki Dumoulin added 9 points as the Whip-Purs improved to 8-2.
Freshman point guard Elena Porrata paced Palatine (4-6) with 9 points while sophomore Syd Rzepka had 7.
"It was a good game for all of us," said Benoit, a Northern Michigan signee. "We executed our stuff very well and every gap that we saw, we took it."
"Playing zone offense we moved the ball without dribbling and just played smart," said Whip-Purs' coach Mike Featherly. "Our interior passing was excellent. Meagan Heine did a nice job of finding Emma."
After a slow start for both teams, Hampshire seized control late in the first quarter as Rachel Dumoulin hit consecutive 3-pointers for a 10-2 lead.
Benoit scored the first two baskets of the second quarter before Porrata halted the 12-point run with a Palatine 3-pointer.
With Benoit on the bench, the Pirates closed out the half on a solid 10-5 run, highlighted by Rzepka's conventional 3-point play and a 3-pointer from Carissa Multon just before the buzzer.
However, the Palatine offense generated just one basket in the third quarter and the Whip-Purs extended their lead to 39-19 behind 10 points from Benoit.
"I thought we ran our offense pretty well, but it was a tough shooting day for us," said Pirates' coach Mark Johnson. "They did a good job of keeping us out of the middle with the size of Benoit, and we were one shot and done."
Multon and Sarah Udoni both finished with 6 points for the Pirates, who host Stevenson Tuesday.
Heine collected 5 points and 5 assists for the Whip-Purs, who will look to cut down on their 20 turnovers against Prairie Ridge Tuesday.
"Our turnovers are too high, but we're shooting well, so we've been pretty effective," Featherly said. "Once we get those turnovers down we'll be even a tougher team to play."