Freeport 54, Hampshire 47: Ryan Pierce was fed up.

And the usually mild-mannered Freeport girls basketball coach let his team — a few players directly — know about it in the third quarter.

The fire-and-brimstone speech inspired the Pretzels after an uninspired first half and helped Freeport beat Hampshire 54-47 Monday.

“I’m not the kind of coach that likes to point directly at people and call people out for things,” Pierce said. “I like to address the group. ... But I felt I needed to change that strategy for a minute there. I got on people for specific things.”

Katie Norman (team-high 14 points, 9-of-10 FTs) and Courtney Shiffer (seven points) had to think back years ago to remember the last time Pierce went off like he did Monday.

“He’s only yelled at us like that one other time,” Shiffer said. “I think it was, like, freshman year.”

Kelsey Hoefer (11 points, nine in the second half) was the first one to respond after the timeout as the Pretzels (28-3) were down, 30-22, with 6:13 left in the third.

She grabbed a rebound and made a lay-up, followed by a 3-pointer to close the gap to 30-27.

“It (the speech) really lit a fire under Kelsey,” Pierce said. “She went from being a nonfactor to a major factor in that stretch when we took the lead.”

- Joey Baskerville, GateHouse News Service