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.”
Hampshire 45, Byron 30: Hampshire jumped to an 18-4 first-quarter lead and rolled to the win. Hampshire’s Christine Heine and Byron’s Meghan Fitts each scored 12 to lead their teams.
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Stockton outlasts Forreston in nonconference play: Stockton pulled out to a 12-2 lead and kept its distance to outlast visiting Forreston 53-36 Thursday.
Stockton’s Haley Magee scored 16 points and Jessica Brunner added nine, and they each grabbed nine rebounds in the nonconference showdown. Forreston was led by Stephanie Conkey and Morgann McCoy, each with 10 points, while Hannah Collman finished with 12 boards.
Hampshire 66, North Boone 18: Kelsey Edwards scored five points for North Boone.
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Winnebago 70, Genoa-Kingston 43: Junior forward Emily Myers drained five 3-pointers and scored 29 points to lift the Indians of Winnebago to a big win over Genoa-Kingston.
Myers hit two 3s in each of the first two quarters as the Indians built a double-digit lead by halftime. Jennifer Wakeley scored seven of her 11 points in the second half to help keep Winnebago out front.
Hampshire 46, Oregon 39: Hampshire got 19 points from Alex Dumoulin and held off Oregon down the stretch.
MACHESNEY PARK — At first, Boylan couldn’t shoot. Then the Titans couldn’t hold onto the ball. But always, always, they played defense.
“Our defense is incredible. It’s been this whole season,” Brea Edwards said after scoring 18 points to lead Boylan to a 52-42 girls basketball victory Saturday over Algonquin Jacobs in the title game of the 31st Harlem Holiday Classic.
MACHESNEY PARK — As host of the Harlem Tournament, the Huskies had little trouble against Rock Falls, taking a 58-37 win.
Kortney Buskeros scored 18 points, while Kristin Numbers added 14 to lead Harlem.
Boylan 81, Christian Life 17: The Titans led 37-7 at halftime against Christian Life.
Sycamore 53, Guilford 21: Sycamore pulled away from Guilford with a 22-4 run in the second quarter en route to a win.
Auburn 58, Belvidere North 40: Led by Atiya Roby, who scored 23 points, Auburn bested Belvidere North.
GENOA — With his team down 10 points with less than 10 minutes remaining in Friday’s Class 4A first-round playoff game, Genoa-Kingston senior Chris Wilkins could almost see the end coming.
“All I could think of was ‘This could be my last game. This could be it,’” said Wilkins, the 5-foot-10, 200-pound Cogs quarterback. “But momentum can change that fast.”
HAMPSHIRE — After a 20-6 loss to Hampshire, that wasn't as close as the score indicates, Byron finds itself in the critical phase of its season.
The 1-3 Tigers start BNC play with back-to-back games against conference favorites Oregon and Stillman Valley.
Plagued by mental errors, ineffective line play and sloppy tackling against Hampshire (1-3), Byron needs to get better in a hurry.
"This was probably the flattest we've been," Byron coach Mike Elsbury said. "We had mental mistakes on coverage and were diving at the feet on tackles."
OREGON - In a game plagued by fumbles and slippery field conditions, Oregon needed a field goal in double overtime to edge Hampshire 11-8.
After Hampshire failed to convert on a fourth-down play in the second overtime, Jeff Yount kicked a fourth-down 22-yard field goal for the Hawk win.
"The longer the game went, I had a feeling it was going to come down to a field goal or extra point,"
Yount said.
Yount's kick was dead center off the hold of Ryan McWethy, who moments earlier scored a touchdown and extra point in the first overtime for Oregon.
