The Hampton-Dumont-CAL girls and boys basketball teams split a non-conference doubleheader at Nevada on Monday. The Bulldog girls won 58-38 and the Bulldog boys fell 64-29 as aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
In the girls game, H-D-CAL won its first game over Nevada since 2020. H-D-CAL’s full-court and on-ball pressure kept the Cubs offense out of sorts and allowed the Bulldogs to march out to a 16-4 in the first quarter. The Bulldogs allowed only nine points to the Cubs in the second quarter and extended their lead to 29-13 at the half. The Bulldogs maintained a double digit lead in the second half to earn the solid road win.
Bulldogs Head Coach Miranda Stafford on effectiveness of pressure and striving for what’s next.
“They like to pressure, play physical and speed you up, that plays into our hands. We’ve got guards that want to do that and we’ve got posts that run the floor. So that worked out in our advantage. Brooklyn, Jordan and Mackenzy know each other well enough that they know where one another is going to be and that makes that trap and those things in the back court a little bit easier,” says Stafford. “Good win for these guys. They need to be satisfied with the win but not satisfied with where we’re at. We’ve got some goals but we’re excited. We’ll go back to work tomorrow.”
Three Bulldogs finished the night in double figures including Brooklyn Valley with 14 points, and Lily Hambly and Charlee Morton each with 11 points respectively.
In the boys game, Nevada got on a roll from beyond the arc (eight three’s in the game) early to sprint out to a 23-3 lead through one quarter. The Cubs didn’t let up in the second quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 20-5 for a 45-10 lead at the half. The entirety of the second half was played under continuous clock and the Cubs maintained a 30 point lead for the remainder of the game. The Bulldogs offense performed better in the second half putting 21 points.
Bulldogs Head Coach Brian Niesen on developing depth chart and areas to improve.
“We knew we’d have some growing pains along the way, and we knew we were playing a good team tonight. We played 14 guys, went 10 deep in the first half, just trying to figure out which combinations work and who can run our stuff,” says Niesen. “We’re trying some new things on the defensive end, and we’re trying some new things on the offensive end to figure out who can do those things for us. We’re trying to figure it all out and figure out our depth chart and who plays well with who. Handling pressure, we had too many turnovers early. If they didn’t let us catch it in one spot, it kind of bothered our motion offense, we gotta work on that. We definitely have to locate their shooters better in our zone defense as well.”
Tramaine Horton had 10 points, followed by Caden Woods and Connor Miller each with seven points to lead the Bulldogs.
The H-D-CAL girls (2-0) will host Clear Lake on Friday. The Bulldog boys (0-1) will be at AGWSR on Tuesday December 10th.
