Hampshire rolls past R-B

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HAMPSHIRE – It’s tough for Hampshire sharpshooter Justin Bieber to predict when he’s about to have a big game.

“Maybe after the first couple of shots, then I’ll start feeling it,” Bieber said. “Sometimes I feel it in warm-ups. But you never know.”

Bieber didn’t need long to figure it out Tuesday. He sank seven three-pointers as the Whip-Purs crushed Richmond-Burton, 51-23, to atone for a two-point defeat in January.

Hampshire (15-9 overall, 6-3 Big Northern Conference East Division) knew it could not leap past R-B (17-8, 8-1) in the division standings. But the Whip-Purs played nearly flawless basketball on Senior Night, with five senior starters combining for 40 of the team’s 51 points.

“This one was just for pride,” said Bieber, who finished with 23 points. “They already beat us once, and they already won the conference. It didn’t mean anything, but it was just for pride at home [and on] Senior Night.”

The Rockets struggled from the start against the Whips, who buried five three-pointers in the first quarter to jump ahead, 17-4. Hampshire led by as many as 19 in the first half and quickly regrouped after R-B started the second half on a 6-0 run.

Whip-Purs guard Shyler Ralphs knocked down two three-pointers, and Grant Yoder made one, giving the team 10 baskets from beyond the arc. Kenny Riordan led R-B with 10 points as the Rockets suffered their first division loss of the season.

“Hampshire was a better team than we were today,” R-B coach Brandon Creason said. “We didn’t come ready to play. Give them all the credit. They kicked our rear ends from the jump.”

The Whips did so by using consistent ball movement to beat R-B’s 1-2-2 zone defense. By Hampshire coach Bob Barnett’s count, his team tallied 17 assists on 18 field goals.

For a game that seemed not to matter, that statistic certainly did.

Barnett emphasized the importance of the extra pass during practice this week, which could bode well for the hard-to-predict Whip-Purs heading into regional play.

“It would have been nice to win back-to-back conferences,” Barnett said. “But we shot ourselves in the foot, and now it’s time to move on. It’s nice to play this well going into the regionals.”