Bulldogs girls basketball hold on for win

HAMPTON—--- The Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs were able to hold on for a 60-50 win over the Pocahontas Area Indians at home on Jan. 16. The Bulldogs are now 12-1 on the year following the win. The Bulldogs led 18-10 after the first quarter and in the second quarter a three-pointer by Brooklyn Valley made it 24-10 with just over 5:00 left in the second quarter. The Bulldogs kept the lead at 14 points at 29-15 with 2:30 left in the first half. At halftime the Bulldogs led 34-20.

The Bulldogs outscored Pocahontas Area 13-9 in the third quarter to make it 47-29 but the Bulldogs were outscored 21-13 in the fourth quarter  and were able to cut the Bulldogs lead down to single digits at 49-41 with 4:49 left in the game, But the Bulldogs were able to hang on for the win as they ended the game on a 11-9 run.

Head coach Miranda Stafford said that she said that the team talked about how Pocahontas Area was a good team and was not going to stop and that the team was ready for them to make a run.

“We knew that they were going to go on a run at some point,” Stafford said. “It depended on how we responded to that run and when they got it down to nine points I thought our girls did a good job of composing themselves and hitting as many free-throws as they needed to keep us comfortable and being able to pull away with the win.”

The Indians tried a full-court press against the Bulldogs and Stafford liked how the Bulldogs handled the pressure.

“With the full-court press I thought we did awesome,” Stafford said. “The Indians are a really quick, guard oriented team and they create a lot of turnovers and I think we did a good job of recognizing their full-court. We did get too sped up in the fourth quarter, but for the most part we did a good job of getting to the middle and seeing where our openings are taking good shots.

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Brooklyn Valley led the team with 19 points, Jordan Valley and Lily Hambly both scored 13 points each. Hambly had a double-double with a team high 11 rebounds. Charlee Morton and MacKenzy Valley both scored five points each, Addison Aalbers had three points, and Kenzie Moorehead scored two points. The team went 22-for-48 from the field for a 45.8 shooting percentage. The Bulldogs went 5-for-19 from three-point range and 11-for-18 from the free-throw line. 

Stafford said the team was able to get the ball inside on offense and as a result they were also able to get some good looks at three-pointers by kicking the ball back to the outside. Stafford said one thing the team can learn and take away from this game is trying to stay composed when their opponent tries to speed them up in the fourth quarter and the importance of their energy..

“And understanding the way they come out and their effort and energy creates a balance for the game and I was really happy with how they came out,” Stafford said.”

The team had 17 steals, Jordan Valley led the team with seven steals, Brooklyn Valley had six steals, MacKenzy Valley added two steals, and Morton and Aalbers both had one steal each.

The team’s next game is on the road on Jan. 24. at Clear Lake at 6:15 p.m.