Tyler Zampa doesn’t mind being the third wheel in Hinsdale South’s offense. The Hinsdale South senior took advantage of Belvidere concentrating on the Hornets’ first two options to lead his team out of the gate with a strong start that held up.
Hinsdale South captured the championship game of the 86th annual Chuck Dayton holiday tournament at Dekalb with a 76-54 victory over Belvidere on Friday night.
“They were helping so much on Barret [Benson] and Larry [Motuzis] that I had to step up for the team,’’ Zampa said. “Everyday we work so hard on shooting drills in practice that it just becomes second nature.’’
Belvidere was intent on limiting the 6-9 Benson by surrounding him with two and sometimes three players in the post. Likewise, they kept a player closely attached to Motuzis wherever he went and that left openings for the other players.
Zampa took advantage of that situation by scoring 17 of his 21 points in the first half. He made three three pointers and shot 70 percent from the field. His effort led Hinsdale (11-3) to a 40-28 halftime lead and opened up the offense for Benson.
“Tonight was a perfect example of how good Tyler can be when he’s aggressive offensively,’’ Hinsdale coach Brett Moore said. “I loved how he saw what they were doing and just took advantage of it.’’
The second part of the successful equation for Hinsdale was its defense which plays aggressively on the perimeter knowing that Benson is sitting by the hoop erasing any mistakes that his teammates might make.
The sophomore big-man had 15 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shot plus many more altered ones. He was a key factor in Belvidere shooting just 22 percent from the floor.
“Barret’s not only tall but he takes up so much physical space on the floor,’’ Moore said. “It allows us to do so much defensively having him back there.’’
Marcel Phillips added 19 for the Hornets.
Joe Byers scored 17 and Maurice Jackson added 16 for the Bucs (10-3)
