The Hampton-Dumont-CAL basketball teams earned non-conference wins at AGWSR Tuesday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ. The Bulldogs won the girls game 49-48 and the boys game 52-39.
In the girls game, the Cougars jumped out to an early advantage and led 26-18 at halftime. The Bulldogs fought back to tie midway through the third quarter, and Charlee Morton hit an elbow jumper for a 36-34 lead with two minutes left in the period. Trailing 45-42, AGWSR’s Ella Diemer hit back-to-back threes to take a 48-45 lead. Those were AGWSR’s final buckets, and they were held scoreless for the final 2:57. With 1:14 left, Jordan Valley stole an inbounds pass at halfcourt and ran it back for a go-ahead layup for a 49-48 Hampton-Dumont-CAL lead. Needing a stop, the Bulldogs forced a desperation shot as time expired to seal the win.
“They can’t all be pretty,” Hampton-Dumont-CAL coach Miranda Stafford says. “They can’t all be the way you draw it up. Yeah, we’d like to shoot 40 percent from the three-point line, but credit to their guards for doing a great job on our guards and pressuring them a lot and getting them off the three-point line. I don’t think we had very many opportunities where we had a catch and shoot three. Everything we had was a ‘create,’ and we didn’t get those to go down, so I thought they made a great adjustment in the second half of stop settling for those, getting in the paint a little bit, pick the defense apart a little bit, and get our posts looks.”
Brooklyn Valley led with 20 points, moving the Bulldogs to 4-0.
“That’s the best atmosphere in this gym in a while,” AGWSR coach David Koop says. “And I hope that’s how it is every night. The fans were great. The student section was great. And yeah, at the end, it was just kind of a guessing game. 11 seconds left, I really thought they were going to switch to man, and they stuck with their 2-3 zone. And we kind of had two plays drawn up, but it was kind of just try to look for a shot, see what we can get. And it’s just a guessing game there at the end. But we played a great game. Can’t fault the effort on the defensive end. We followed the game plan well. The Valley girls had almost had 30 points together, the two twins. And I thought they had to earn all 30 points of that. Trevyn, Tori and Piper did a great job locking those two down, and we really made them earn it tonight and we were a point short.”
Trevyn Smith led with 15 points. The Cougars are now 4-1.
In the boys game, the Cougars held the early advantage, including as many as 16-12. But the Bulldogs raced back for a 21-20 halftime lead. Hampton-Dumont-CAL made their most crucial run late in the third quarter, leading 39-30 entering the final eight minutes. The Bulldogs hit shots and made stops down the stretch to seal the win. Head Coach Brian Niesen says the defense was the difference.
“Happy for our guys,” Niesen says. “I thought we played good in the defensive end, first and foremost. I thought we did a really good job at our matchup zone and finding their better players and just making passes tough. Our defense, we were great, and then Brady Harr obviously had a great night. He was really good on both ends there and we just we had to get him touches every time down. If he went one or two possessions without it, we’re telling the guys just get him a touch inside and something good is gonna happen. He scored a lot, he gets some really nice passes as well that led to easy buckets for us.”
Brady Harr led with 26 points. Hampton-Dumont-CAL is now 1-1.
AGWSR coach Ryley Schipper says it was a struggle to hit shots when needed.
“I thought we executed well and really got pretty much any shot we wanted,” Schipper says. “We just didn’t make shots, and you’ve got to make shots to win. We put guys in the right spot and tonight we just didn’t make them. Anytime you give up 52 points, I feel comfortable as a coach defensively. And we should be able to be in that game. And we were in the game for the most part, but we’ve got to step up at the free throw line and knock down free throws. I bet we missed eight to ten free throws tonight, and that’s frustrating as a coach because we shoot a lot of them at practice, and you’ve got to make them. A game I felt like we let get away from us.”
Bo Starr led the Cougars with 14 points, moving to 0-3.
AGWSR will be at Gladbrook-Reinbeck Friday. Hampton-Dumont-CAL will host Webster City Friday.
Miranda Stafford interview:
David Koop interview:
Brian Niesen interview:
Ryley Schipper interview:
