Hampshire handles Larkin

Hampshire's Emma Benoit gladly took advantage of the single coverage Larkin applied in the post.

The Whip-Purs' 6-foot-1 senior dominated inside the paint, racking up a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds in Friday's night's 49-37 home nonconference girls basketball victory.

“They kind of played me on my back and my teammates did a great job getting the ball to me,” Benoit said.

“Once we got that ball moving, it was nice to see Emma getting touches inside. When she moves from side-to-side, she's tough to defend,” added Hampshire coach Mike Featherly.

“Her post moves are great and it's very tough for us to stop, especially the way we're been playing defense,” said Larkin coach Steve Knapp. “We have a lot of learning to do and we have to make these adjustments in games.”

Hampshire (9-3) also managed to slow down Royals' standout junior Marlee Kyles, who entered averaging over 24 points per game.

With Kiera Guerrero-Gay and Miah Thompson chasing Kyles all over the court, she finished with just 10 points on 3-of-16 shooting.

“We had Miah and Kiera just follow her around and faceguard. The plan was don't let her touch it, and when she does, we have to help,” Featherly said. “She's an excellent player and it was a good team effort defensively.”

“They contained Marlee tonight and when she gets contained, we're going to have problems,” Knapp said. “We need to get somebody else involved where instead of just standing and watching, make a cut to get open.”

Hampshire led 23-14 at halftime behind 15 points from Benoit, but Larkin (3-8) won the third quarter 11-10 thanks to a pair of baskets from Shawniece Douglas and a long 3-pointer from Sarah El Rahmany.

Megan Chwee, who stepped up with 10 points for Larkin, opened the fourth quarter with a 15-foot jumper to narrow the gap to 33-27, but Hampshire went on an 11-4 run over the next four minutes to seal the win.

“Megan's been doing a phenomenal job catching the ball at the elbows and going to the rim,” Knapp said. “If we can get an inside presence to go along with that, it will help Marlee.”

“Larkin did a nice job battling back and found ways to score on us, but we were able to grind it out,” Featherly said.

Rachel Dumoulin played a solid all-around game for the Whip-Purs, contributing 8 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists while Nikki Dumoulin added 8 points and 4 rebounds.

Hampshire went 11-for-14 from the line, but finished 0-for-8 from 3-point range.

“We had good looks, but they didn't fall tonight. The girls have green lights to shoot, and those will come,” Featherly said.