Dike-New Hartford and Hampton-Dumont-CAL split a non-conference doubleheader Tuesday, which aired on 104.9 KLMJ and RadioOnTheGo’s YouTube channel. The Wolverine girls won 45-19 and the Bulldog boys won 70-61.
In the girls game, the Wolverines jumped out to a big lead after both teams had a slow first quarter. It was 24-6 at halftime, and DNH never let the game become in question during the second half on their way to the overpowering win. Head Coach Matt Dove says they created several takeaways with ball pressure.
“It started with Kailyn Meester, the way she guarded that Valley girl, picking her up line to line,” Dove says. “I mean that Valley girl is really good player, you can tell she plays a lot of basketball. I think we held her to four points, so that was a group effort between Kailyn Meester and Jaelyn Smith. Really liked their effort and energy the whole time. Then Mallory Petersen, Autumn Meester, Payton Foster, picking up the other guards. That was one thing we wanted to emphasize coming into this week, was ball pressure, whether it was in the full court or in the half court. And then again, just working on the boards. I haven’t seen stats, but thought our effort there was much better. And then limiting turnovers, that’s something we wanted to emphasize. And I thought we did a better job on that tonight. Again, haven’t seen a number, but I thought it was much less than we had the two games last week. So just looking to improve in those areas. And I thought we took a step in the right direction.”
The Wolverines got the win despite missing all 16 three-point attempts. Payton Foster led with 14 points, Seeri Smith had 12 and Rylee Reicks added 10. Madison Heilskov led the Bulldogs with eight points.
The boys game was close throughout. After the Bulldogs created separation in the second quarter, the Wolverines cut their deficit to 33-32 at halftime. DNH’s Corbin McCarter kept the team alive with six three-pointers, but the inside presence of Hampton-Dumont-CAL proved too much to handle behind 26 points by Caden Woods. It was the program’s first win of the Matt Lokenvitz era.
“It was, we thought, a battle of those bigs, and then those two guards came out and really kind of dominated a little bit each half,” Lokenvitz says. “So we adjusted, the kids really took the adjustments in game well, started really overplaying on those two guards, which made their life really difficult there towards the end of the half. And Brady did a nice job when they started really doubling down on him, finding Caden Woods. I’m proud of the way that they were able to take the adjustments we were making. We started cutting Caden every time Brady got the ball, cutting him straight to the block, that’s the man they were kind of helping off on. And obviously with 26 points, he showed that he was getting open there at the block.”
Brady Harr was an assist short of a quadruple double with 10 points, 15 rebounds and 10 blocks. Tramaine Horton added 15 points. McCarter led DNH with 21 points, Jaiden Soppe had 15 and Dawson Dietrick scored 10.
In their next action, Dike-New Hartford will host East Marshall Thursday and Hampton-Dumont-CAL will be at Webster City Friday.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrA9tLGmmsU?si=QytoA4YcgiTWNbSq&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-5UEIP-qGQ?si=JOacHAXz4I5vFSJF&w=560&h=315]
