Girls basketball notes: Northern Illinois Holiday Classic tips off Saturday

The Northern Illinois Holiday Classic, featuring seven local girls basketball teams, tips off Saturday at McHenry’s main campus.

McHenry will host every game of the bracket-style tournament, with the winners of Saturday’s first-round and quarterfinal contests moving on to Tuesday’s semifinals at 5 and 6:30 p.m.

The third-place game will be played at 5 p.m. Dec. 19, followed by the championship at 6:30 p.m.

Defending champion Marian Central will go for back-to-back titles after winning the tournament last year. Joining the Hurricanes in the 14-team field are Crystal Lake Central, Crystal Lake South, Marengo, McHenry, Prairie Ridge and Woodstock North. Other teams include Belvidere, Deerfield, Grayslake North, Lakes, Larkin, Round Lake and Wauconda.

In previous years, the first few days of the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic were split between sites at Richmond-Burton and McHenry. This year, R-B is hosting its own holiday tournament Dec. 20 and 21, which will include Harvard and Johnsburg.

Last year’s tournament needed overtime to determine the champion, with Marian Central defeating Crystal Lake Central 56-54 in one of the most exciting games of the season.

The Hurricanes were able to overcome a sensational performance by last year’s Northwest Herald Player of the Year as Crystal Lake Central guard Katie Hamill – now a freshman starter at Division II Missouri-St. Louis – poured in 42 points in the loss.

Marian Central and Crystal Lake Central won’t have a chance to meet in the final this year but could see each other in Saturday’s quarterfinals if they both win their first-round games. The teams played each other to open the season at Johnsburg’s Thanksgiving Tournament, with Marian winning 45-36.

Host McHenry and Woodstock North received byes for their opening games. McHenry will play the winner of Deerfield and Round Lake in its first game, while North will get Prairie Ridge or Wauconda.

Campanelli red hot: Huntley senior Anna Campanelli, a Division I Kent State commit, has started the year on fire and has led the Red Raiders in scoring in all eight games so far.

Huntley is off to an 8-0 start, including three wins in Fox Valley Conference play where it owns a 55-2 record since the start of the 2021-22 season.

Through eight games, Campanelli is averaging 19.6 points a game, including a career-high 32-points against Boylan in the second game of the season. Campanelli was named Game MVP at Fremd’s Chicagoland Showcase over the weekend with a 20-point effort against Mother McAuley.

Campanelli was a Northwest Herald All-Area first-team selection last year and averaged 14.1 points a game.

Hornets win first KRC game in four years: Harvard beat Richmond-Burton 50-44 last week, giving the Hornets their first Kishwaukee River Conference victory since Feb. 4, 2020.

The win snapped a 46-game losing streak in conference play for the Hornets.

Harvard has won three in a row since an 0-3 start, also beating Westminster Christian 65-17 and Indian Creek 64-59 in overtime.

Hampshire looks to turn things around: Hampshire has struggled to a 1-7 start, but Whip-Purs coach Eric Samuelson knows there’s still a long way to go. Hampshire is coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons but graduated eight, including multiple starters who are playing in college.

Hampshire has finished runner-up in the FVC to Huntley in each of the past two seasons. Samuelson and the Whips had a long talk after Monday’s 53-30 FVC loss to Cary-Grove. Hampshire went scoreless in the second quarter and scored three points in the fourth.

“I just told them to throw the record out,” Samuelson said. “We’ve played really good teams. I’m not worried about that. I am worried about how we played. I had all the captains speak because I think we needed to kind of have a heart-to-heart. It’s that time of year where it’s like, ‘All right, what we’re doing right now we’ve got to change.' And it all can’t come from the coaches.

“It was a calm talk, it wasn’t anything awful. Hopefully it leads to some positive outcomes for us.”

In addition to playing undefeated Huntley, Hampshire has played a tough nonconference schedule with games against Fremd, Geneva, Lake Zurich, Mother McAuley and Carmel. The Whips beat Prairie Ridge 50-40 for their first win Dec. 3. Hampshire lost to Carmel 45-38 Tuesday in the Lake Zurich Exam Jamm.

“I’m not always about the scoreboard, I’m about what it takes to get to the scoreboard – meaning the effort, energy and enthusiasm,“ he said. ”If we can just get everybody on the floor to commit to everything we’re all trying to do, I think we have the ability to be better than the way we’re playing. I think the past two seasons, did we get to some good win records? Sure. But I think we got there because of how we played, not just because we were the most talented team on the floor.”