The Hampton-Dumont-CAL girls and boys basketball teams will travel to Nevada for a non-conference doubleheader on Tuesday. The Bulldog girls will look for first win since 2020 and the Bulldog boys for first ever win in the Bound Era over the Cubs.
The H-D-CAL girls (1-0) enters off a 45-33 win at Aplington-Parkersburg in their season opener on Monday, November 25. Jordan Valley and Brooklyn Valley both finished in double figures with 16 points and 11 points, respectively. Lily Hambly controlled the boards with 15 rebounds. The Bulldogs knocked down nine three pointers and outrebounded the Falcons 40-32 in the win.
Head Coach Miranda Stafford on keys for taking care business on both ends of the floor.
“Good shot selection is number one. If it’s a good shot, they know it’s a good shot for them, and if it’s a good shot for you, it’s a good shot for our team. Jordan and Brooklyn both hit some really big shots, on top of making some threes,” says Stafford. “Charlee and Lily got in and they rebounded. They rebounded their butts off and did a great job. It’s been a focus since our scrimmages of boxing out and going and getting the ball. They did a really nice job of doing that.”
The Nevada girls (0-1) lost 50-36 at Boone in their season opener on Tuesday, November 26. Emilee Kelly led scoring with 14 points and Avyn Heintz was the top rebounder with nine boards for the Cubs.
The H-D-CAL boys went 13-10 last season. Brady Harr is the lone returning starter. He was third on last year’s team with 7.8 points per game and had the second-most rebounds at 8.1 per game. The Bulldogs were among the top rebounding teams in the North Central Conference with 727 (4th most) last season.
The Nevada boys went 19-5 last season. John Nelson returns second leading scorer with 15 points per game and top rebound with 6.9 per game last season. The Cubs pressure defense collected 193 steals last season.
Bulldogs Head Coach Brian Niesen on working through the Cubs pressure.
“It was all man to man, but they pick you up full court and really made it hard for us to run our sets. We had a lot of quick hitters,” says Niesen. “We got to handle pressure and try to use that pressure against them. If teams are pressuring like that, there’s going to be driving lanes, cutting lanes and there’s going to be space if they’re picking us up full court. We got to figure out which kids give us the best chance to handle that pressure and try to make them pay for being that aggressive.”
Coverage on 104.9 KLMJ begins at 5:50 p.m. with the girls game scheduled to tip-off at 6:00 p.m. followed by the boys game in Nevada.
