Hampshire grows up quickly, looks to finish strong: Northwest Herald girls basketball notes

Hampshire may not look young on paper, but the Whip-Purs' experience coming into the season was lacking.

Senior forward Chloe Van Horn and junior guard Mikala Amegasse have been a part of the varsity team for a combined seven seasons, but other than that, Hampshire had some big question marks.

The team lost four starters and graduated eight overall. That left lots of minutes available for the Whips, who, after a 1-7 start, are beginning to find their groove.

Freshman Jiselle Lopez, sophomore Peyton McCarthy and senior Autumn Kriegel have worked their way into starting roles despite no previous varsity experience.

“We’re still figuring some things out, but we’re getting there,” said coach Eric Samuelson, in his sixth season as head coach. “They’ve shown a lot of growth from where we started.”

Hampshire is 8-3 since a 1-7 start, including five wins in the past six games.

The scoring and experience of Van Horn and Amegasse have been instrumental to the team’s recent success, and Lopez and McCarthy have played big roles as first-year varsity players. In Tuesday’s victory over Crystal Lake South, the duo shined defensively despite tough assignments.

Kriegel, too, is someone who has made a hefty jump in short time.

“She’s never played varsity minutes before, and all she is doing is giving us great rebounds, great defense and great communication. She’s making some big shots for us, too,” Samuelson said.

Hampshire (9-10) will need a fantastic finish to reach 20 wins for the third year in a row.

Samuelson, though, isn’t worried about records.

“To be at this point of the season, records aside, I think we’ve gotten a lot better, and that’s what matters to me,“ Samuelson said. ”My kids have really stepped up."

Huff reaches 1,000: Marian Central guard Juliette Huff entered Monday’s nonconference game against Grayslake Central 18 points shy of 1,000 in her career.

The Hurricanes senior reached the milestone in the fourth quarter with a baseline drive past three Rams’ defenders. She ended with a game-high 23 points in a 53-45 loss.

The game was stopped briefly to honor Huff, and she was presented with a game ball by Rams coach Steve Ikenn after the game.

Huff is the fifth player in program history to reach 1,000 points.

“I didn’t really know what number I was at, so I was a little confused,” said Huff, who will play next year at Division-III Carroll. “I’m just so grateful for all the players and coaches I’ve had. I couldn’t do it without them. I just have such a good support system that helped get me there.”

Huff joins Huntley senior Anna Campanelli as the only two area players this season to reach the 1,000-point scoring mark. Campanelli became the eighth player in Red Raiders history to reach 1,000 with a 20-point performance against Maine West in late December.

No stopping the Raiders: Huntley (18-0) kept its perfect season alive Tuesday with a big win over McHenry and climbed one spot in the Associated Press Class 4A state rankings, released Wednesday.

The Red Raiders were No. 6, receiving 22 votes. Benet (48) tops the rankings, followed by Lyons (43), Kenwood (40), Alton (34) and Fremd (25).

The Raiders, who are averaging 57.1 points a game, continue to dominate Fox Valley Conference play with a perfect 7-0 mark. That brings their FVC record to 59-2 since the start of the 2021-22 season.

Huntley has 11 conference games left, in addition to games Saturday against Lincoln-Way East and DeKalb at DeKalb’s MLK Tournament, before the start of the postseason.

Familiar foe: Crystal Lake Central coach Joe Capalbo had a pretty good idea of what to expect when his Tigers faced Cary-Grove Jan. 7.

The first-year coach at Central previously taught physical education and health at Cary Junior High, and many of the Trojans’ current players were former students of his in the classroom.

“I know all those girls pretty well, so it was interesting,” Capalbo said with a laugh. “They’re a tough group of kids, they’re well coached and they play aggressive. They’re just really skilled basketball players, and they can shoot it.”

The Tigers, who were playing without leading scorer Ruby Macke, focused their defensive efforts on stopping 6-foot-2 forward Ellie Mjaanes, a D-I Lehigh commit, and did well in limiting her to 13 points. That led to a bigger game from junior Malaina Kurth, who scored 14 points and sank three 3-pointers to lead all players.

C-G had a hot-shooting night with seven 3s in a 49-17 win.

Macke, a 6-foot junior forward, twisted her ankle in Central’s previous game against Glenbrook North, which is coached by Capalbo’s younger brother Nick. Macke, though, has since returned for the Tigers, who have won five straight.

Van Horn a future Pioneer: Hampshire senior Chloe Van Horn announced her commitment Dec. 30 to continue her academic and athletic career at Wisconsin-Platteville – not only to play basketball, but softball as well.

Van Horn grew up a competitive gymnast, but quit in the fifth grade and found basketball to be the sport that gave her the most joy.

When she made the Whips’ varsity softball team as a sophomore, her love was split between the two sports. Van Horn ultimately decided that she wanted to pursue both sports and found a fit with the D-III Pioneers.

“It’s definitely not what I expected,” Van Horn said. “Throughout my whole recruiting process, I was very focused primarily on basketball. But kind of last minute, I decided I wanted to continue softball as well. It means a lot. To be on this team for four years and have that come across in the end, I couldn’t have had the career and success I’ve had without my teammates.

“We’ve all grown together and it means a lot to share that success with them.”

Emotions run high for Thunder: Woodstock North coach Jay Justice found positives and negatives from his team’s 51-44 crosstown loss to Woodstock last week. The Thunder had a hectic second quarter but started to play more composed in the second half, winning both the third and fourth quarters.

In the end, it wasn’t enough as North couldn’t overcome 24 turnovers and a dominant second quarter from Woodstock senior guard Keira Bogott, who had 12 of her game-high 17 points in the eight-minute stretch.

“We just have to make sure that one loss doesn’t shake the boat too much,” Justice said. “Sometimes with the crosstown game, it seems to matter a lot more. The crowds are really into it and all that extra stuff. There’s lots of high energy.

“The start of the game for us, I thought we were playing real aggressive defensively. We were doing a lot of positive things, and then the fouls started to pile up. In the second quarter, we started to throwing the ball away too much. They were making us play faster than we wanted to.”