The Hampton-Dumont-CAL basketball teams each picked up non-conference wins at Charles City Tuesday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ and RadioOnTheGo’s YouTube channel. The boys won 55-50 and the girls won 53-12.
Jumping out to a lead by as many as 13 points, the Bulldog boys had a strong first half. But the Comets came back. HDCAL settled for several missed three-pointers that could have stretched the advantage, but instead left the door ajar for a comeback. Charles City cut the deficit to two points in the second half, but the Bulldogs made enough shots in the end to hand on.
“This year we’ve had a lot of close games, and it usually comes down to the wire, so it feels like we’re always ready for that,” senior Caden Woods says. “I think the biggest thing for us is we’re under pressure. Basketball, if you make it a selfless game, it can be a great game, and I think we need to pass the ball around more with two minutes left, just keep passing it around. But overall, I believe we’ve been in these situations for the last two years so I knew we could do it.”
Senior Brady Harr says they’ll learn from the missed opportunity of a much larger win.
“I think we’ve got to get better taking care of the ball,” Harr says. “We’ve got to come out stronger in the third quarter. I mean, that’s killed us all year. We were up on Humboldt, and then that third quarter killed us. Tonight, we were up at halftime again, and they brought it back to like within three after the third quarter. So if we eliminate that, we eliminate some dumb passes, I think we blow this team out by a lot more. But we’ve got to take a win, and victories are the best thing you can get.”
Harr scored 26 points and Woods added 13.
In the girls game, the Bulldogs found an offensive rhythm unlike any previous games this season against a team coming off a season where they didn’t play varsity. Early in the third quarter, the running clock rule went into effect, ending the game in quick fashion. Junior Addison Aalbers says they were firing on all cylinders.
“We just ran the court, and we looked for the great shots instead of just the average shots,” Aalbers says. ‘But I think overall we moved the ball well and just out hustled them.”
MacKenzy Valley tied a career-high with 22 points, and Madison Heilskov scored a career-high 19 points.
They’ll return to action Friday at Clarion-Goldfield-Dows on 104.9 KLMJ and RadioOnTheGo’s YouTube channel.
