Whips' Bieber finds range

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Hampshire took full advantage of an off shooting night from host Hinckley-Big Rock and broke open the game in the second half en route to a 53-36 non-conference victory on Tuesday night -- its fourth win in a row.

The Whip-Purs (7-8) were led by Justin Bieber, who connected on seven 3-pointers in the contest and finished with 23 points.

"(Seven 3's) might even be a school record, I don't know," said Hampshire coach Bob Barnett. "In the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth, that kind of bailed us out a little bit there."

Hampshire also was given a big boost from the atrocious shooting night by the Royals. H-BR shot just 26 percent (14 of 53) on the night and just 13 percent (2 of 15) from 3-point range. Only four Royals hit the scoring column.

"They had an off night shooting," said Barnett. "They've got three or four good shooters and they didn't drop tonight."

H-BR's best chance to get into the game came early in the second quarter -- which began with Hampshire leading 14-6. The Royals went on an 8-0 run to open the first five and a half minutes of action to tie it at 14 -- with the Whips plagued by five early turnovers.

Hampshire notched its first basket of the quarter on a Will Bush layup with 2:19 to go and turned it on offensively from there, as it rolled off a 10-4 to end the first half.

"(We played) kind of shaky at first because they started pressing us. And when we broke it, then they backed off the press and then we had a little trouble breaking their zone until we started shooting from outside," said Bieber.

As they third quarter opened, it quickly became apparent that Bieber and the Whips weren't going to allow the poor-shooting Royals to stick in the game much longer.

Within the first four minutes of the third, Hampshire opened a 16-point lead -- sparked by two 3's from Bieber and a defense that continued to make the Royals settle for outside shots that they consistently missed.

Another Bieber 3 in the final minute of the quarter pushed the lead to 39-22 and with the Royals still searching for their first 3-point basket of the night -- no hope of coming back in the fourth.

Bieber knocked down two more 3's in the fourth quarter to push the total to seven. He netted 17 of his 23 points in the second half.

"I just kept shooting and I was making them," said Bieber. "So, I just kept shooting and kept shooting."

Hampshire's lead got as big as 22 points in the fourth quarter.

Led by Bieber's 3-point shooting, the Whips hit on 60 percent (9 of 15) of their 3-point attempts, a total that also enhanced their field goal percentage to 52 (22 of 42) on the evening.

Despite the win and the current Whip-Purs' winning streak, Barnett still sees areas where Hampshire can continue to improve.

Evan Brenner tallied eight points -- including two 3's -- and five rebounds for the Whips, while T.J. Burzak finished with eight points and seven rebounds.