The Hampton-Dumont-CAL and Clarion-Goldfield-Dows basketball teams split a North Central Conference doubleheader on Thursday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ. The Bulldog girls won 54-13 and the Cowboys won 63-51.
In the girls game, with on-ball pressure and balanced scoring the Bulldogs took a 31-4 lead into halftime. The Bulldogs held their ground defensively and extended their lead to 45-9 at the start of the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs advantage set the running clock rule in effect to close out the road conference win.
All seven Bulldogs that played in the matchup scored, MacKenzy Valley paced the Bulldogs with 19 points. Head Coach Miranda Stafford says balanced scoring grows confidence and relieves pressure on the team.
“To see some outside shots go in for Keely and Addie, that gained some confidence from them. To see that go in early for sure is a good thing. The ball goes through and good things happen,” says Stafford. ” We’ve talked about that. If we can get everybody to contribute throughout the game at different times, it takes the pressure off of MacKenzy. Madison has been up there and scoring with us. It’s kind of those two when we’ve got that balanced scoring. If we can get some others to contribute, that takes the pressure off of them.”
Audrey Egland had 11 points to lead the Cowgirls.
In the boys game, CGD with a balance of post play and beyond the arc scoring took a 37-23 lead at the break. The Bulldogs’ outscored the Cowboys 16-8 in the third quarter to trim their deficit to 45-39. The Cowboys didn’t allow the Bulldogs to draw any closer with clutch buckets and defensive stops in the final quarter to put the game away.
Chaz Lane set the tone for the Cowboys with 33 points. Lane shares what he saw on the floor and his preparation to be ready to battle in the post.
“They started in a man, that was working for me going around the rim and getting fast break layups. Then they switched the zone and we struggled with that. Then eventually we picked it up, ran a couple of sets out of that and it started working,” says Lane. “It’s a lot of going at it in practice, a lot of competition with Ux and Mondo. We know that we can make each other better. Going at it hard in practice every day is going to help us a lot down there.”
CGD Head Coach Jason Berning says a fast start and resilience returned the team to the win column.
“I knew we were going to get our best effort tonight, especially at home. Our kids just play really well here. It was huge for us to get off to a hot start and that was what we were preaching just to get out fast. We’ve been pretty good at that, especially at home,” says Berning. “I think that was probably the story of the game, our fast start, then we just had to kind of withstand a few things in the second half and just kind of grind out a win. Any conference win is good. Any conference win is quality. From that standpoint, we’re really happy with what we got tonight.”
Aaden Keehn led the Bulldogs 14 points.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows will return to action at Iowa Falls-Alden on Friday. Hampton-Dumont-CAL will travel to Saint Edmond on Friday on 104.9 KLMJ.
