The Hampton-Dumont-CAL girls basketball team used impressive three-point shooting to earn a 45-33 win at Aplington-Parkersburg in Monday’s season opener, as aired on 99 The Wave.
The Bulldogs hit nine three-pointers, the most by the program in a single game since February 12, 2022. Both teams started cold, but the Falcons seemingly never recovered. Hampton-Dumont-CAL stretched the advantage to 19-14 at halftime, and it didn’t get closer. Jordan Valley was a key to the win, connecting on four three-point shots, most of which were from several feet behind the arc. After cold shooting led to a double digit deficit, the Falcons fouled to put the Bulldogs on the free throw line, but couldn’t capitalize on several missed foul shots.
“Tried to slow them down a little bit, they’re quick and athletic,” Hampton-Dumont-CAL coach Miranda Stafford says. “They want to run. They want to get out. They want to get transition buckets. So we were hoping that we could slow them down a little bit. But I thought we handled their press and their pressure a lot better than we did last year at this time. So that’s a good sign. The game plan was to, you know, get up. I think we played a zone against them, the majority of the game last year, and they’ve made that transition to be able to get up and try to guard somebody and keep some buckets off the board.”
Jordan Valley led with 16 points and Brooklyn Valley added 11. Lily Hambly secured 14 rebounds.
Aplington-Parkersburg coach Brady Driscol says neither phase of the game performed at a high enough level to win.
“Finding some of their kids and their shooting really stretched our defense out,” Driscol says. “And credit to them, they made shots. Nine made threes for them out of 22, so like 40 percent right there for them. Six made free throws for them, so that’s 33 of their 45 points right there accounted for. I’ve got to get us in better defenses and better situations to be able to locate those kids and find them. And then our shooting too. Got looks. I don’t think there’s too many bad looks that we really had. Maybe at the end when we had to start forcing them, but throughout the course of the game for three and a half quarters, we had good looks, just couldn’t capitalize and couldn’t finish. I think our three point percentage was awful. Like one for 17 or something, which is not typical usually of what we do, especially at home.”
Kolbie Wangsness led the Falcons with 17 points. The team was 1-17 from three-point range.
Hampton-Dumont-CAL (1-0) will return to action Tuesday, December 3 at Nevada. The Falcons (0-1) will host Sumner-Fredericksburg that night.
Miranda Stafford interview:
Brady Driscol interview:
