Hampshire advances to regional title game

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Basketball is a team sport. But on Wednesday night at the North Boone Class 2A Regional, Hampshire proved that one player makes a big difference.

In the Whip-Purs' first meeting against Rockford Christian, center T.J. Burzak suffered an eye injury and missed most of the game, leading to a 33-point loss. This time around a healthy Burzak and company cruised to a 59-42 win and a date in Friday's regional championship game versus powerhouse Winnebago.

"We still have some things we have to go over, but when you come back and beat a team that got you by 33, you must be doing something right," said Hampshire coach Bob Barnett. "The biggest difference is the young kids have grown up. When T.J. went down, the young kids didn't have a chance to blossom. Some people had to step up and that's what they've done and it really showed tonight."

A balanced scoring attack, led by Burzak (17 points), Evan Brenner (11 points) and James Goebbert (16 points), and a 73-percent shooting performance from the field in the second half helped fourth-seeded Hampshire (13-12) to the win.

"The first half was theirs," Barnett said. "We were way too quick on things, but we settled down and started handling the pressure well."

Hampshire owned a four-point lead after one quarter and headed into halftime up 22-18 despite shooting only 7 of 21 from the field. Unlike the first time the two teams played, Hampshire held the lead due in large part to going 8 of 10 from the free-throw line. Meanwhile, the fifth-seeded Royal Lions missed on all six of their free-throw attempts.

It wasn't until the second half when Hampshire was able to get on track offensively. Justin Bieber hit a 3-pointer and Burzak followed with an easy look inside as the Whips went on a 5-0 run to start the third, giving them their biggest lead of the night, 27-18.

Rockford Christian (14-10) tried to mount a comeback, but every time Goebbert got the ball off a screen, the Royal Lions were in trouble. The junior went a perfect 6 of 6 from the field, including two big jump shots in the third quarter to help Hampshire go into the final quarter with a 12-point lead.

"We were rushing too much in the first half and in the second we slowed it down," Goebbert said. "I had a lot of open shots. We heard them talking in the stands about how they were going to beat Winnebago in the championship and that kind of motivated us."