The Hampton-Dumont-CAL basketball teams will play their second of three straight away games when they travel to St. Edmond for a North Central Conference doubleheader Friday, which will air on 104.9 KLMJ. It’ll be a quick turnaround for Saturday’s non-conference afternoon games at Saint Ansgar.
The girls (6-0, 3-0 NCC) will look to carry the momentum of an undefeated start into the final two games before Christmas break. Coming off a 41-33 win at a Humboldt team that was ranked at the time, Head Coach Miranda Stafford says this final stretch before break will require a level of mental intensity.
“St. Ed’s is a team that is going to continue to get better,” Stafford says. “They’re athletic, they’ve got some things, they do some really good things, so we’ve gotta be ready to go. And then we end it with our first three game week. Kids are out on Friday, so we’ve gotta stay locked in, we’ve gotta stay focused, and then once 4:00 or so shows up Saturday, they can enjoy a little downtime.”
St. Edmond (1-3, 0-1 NCC) is coming off Tuesday’s 77-34 loss at #8 (3A) Algona in the conference opener, where they were held to just three points in the first quarter in a game that was never competitive. The Bulldogs have won 19 straight in the series, with the last loss happening in the 2013-2014 season.
The Bulldog boys (1-3, 0-2 NCC) had the game get away in the second quarter in Tuesday’s 89-50 loss at Humboldt. Head Coach Brian Niesen says they’ll need to be defensive minded if they are to hand the Gaels their first loss of the season.
“We put 50 up Tuesday, which we told the guys we’re probably not going to win many many shootouts in the 60s or 70s, we’ve got to keep games opponents in the 50s or less,” Niesen says. “The game we won, we kept somebody under 50, we kept Webster City at 50. We know we have to be a defensive minded team, but when teams are making you play fast, sometimes they speed you up, and you’ve got to have more possessions in the game. But we got to do a better job of attacking with smarts, and we’ll just we’ll keep working.”
St. Edmond (4-0, 2-0 NCC) defeated Algona 69-53 Tuesday, where they led from the start and pulled away in the second half. Hunter Horn leads the team and is second in the North Central Conference with 25.0 points per game. His 13.0 rebounds per game are the best in the league.
Coverage will begin at 6:05 p.m., followed by the tipoff at 6:15.
