Boys Basketball: Hampshire coach Bob Barnett gets 400th win

When Hampshire started capitalizing on its height advantage over Woodstock Tuesday, Whip-Purs coach Bob Barnett realized another coaching milestone.

Hampshire’s routine 48-33 Fox Valley Fox victory over the Blue Streaks, the Whip-Purs’ ninth win in 10 games, provided Barnett with his 400th coaching victory.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have players who are willing to sacrifice personal gains for team goals over all these years, and it continues now,” said Barnett, who is now 400-268 in his 25th season of coaching.

Hampshire (11-8, 4-2) relied on its one-two inside punch of 6-foot-6 senior Tyler Watzlawick and 6-6 junior Shane Hernandez to take control early in the third quarter and ride comfortably to victory. Hernandez had 15 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots, while Watzlawick had 14 points, four boards and a pair of blocks.

“We ran the high-low mostly all game,” said Watzlawick.

So when Watzlawick wasn’t down low, it was Hernandez. In the first half, Hernandez had the ball much of the time for 11 of his 15. In the second half, Watzlawick had 10 of his 14.

“We knew coming into this game we had a big advantage because their tallest guy is 6-foot,” Hernandez said. “Today we got inside for majority of the time.”

Woodstock (4-18, 0-6) had only three-point shooting on its side most of the night, and a trey by Wyatt Meyer cut Hampshire’s lead, which had been 11 earlier in the third quarter, to 33-27 with 1:55 left until the fourth quarter.

Then Hampshire just went back inside for a 10-3 run that carried from the end of the third quarter until 2 1/2 minutes were left to put the game out of reach. Guard Brock Ralphs had two of the buckets inside during that run and finished the game with a team-high 10 rebounds to go with nine points.

“He’s got orangutang arms,” Barnett said of Ralphs’ ability to be effective inside at only 6-foot.

Woodstock had nine three-pointers but could manage only two two-pointers and made just 25 percent from the floor (11-of-44). Andy Buhrow had four of the three-pointers and led Woodstock with 12 points.

The importance of the win for Barnett was not lost on his players.

“That means a lot to us,” Hernandez said. “It means a lot to me too because my brother (Miles) got the 300th win with him, so now I’m a junior and I got the 400th with him. I look up to coach a lot.”

Barnett is now 151-91 at Hampshire. His career started out in Franklin Center under his own coach, Denny Kessel, and after the 400th win he gave credit where it was due.

“My coach, Kessel, was instrumental in me getting that job at Franklin Center,” said Barnett, who also was head coach at McHenry and Hinckley-Big Rock before coming to Hampshire 10 seasons ago. “That was my first coaching job and I owe most of what I have, honestly to coach Kessel. He gave me an opportunity and taught me to respect the game of basketball.”

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