On Monday night, a group of Lady Pirates encountered rough waters. Hampton made sure of it.
The Lady Bulldogs opened the game on an 8-0 run and never looked back en route to a 67-27 victory over No. 3 Washburn on Monday night in the Region 1-A tournament at Hampton.
The win advances the Lady Bulldogs to face North Greene in the Region 1-A semifinals at Chuckey-Doak on Wednesday with a championship berth as well as a substate berth on the line.
Hampton jumped out early as Kim Swearingen and Shyanne Tuelle grabbed steals and layups to take an early 8-0 lead three minutes into the game. The Lady Pirates trimmed the deficit to five points, but Alexus Grubbs and Alexis Bowers drained shots to snap the run. After a Washburn bucket, Grubbs drained back-to-back baskets and Bowers used an old-fashioned three-point play to give Hampton a 23-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was much the same. Grubbs and Tuelle hit early 3-pointers, and a 12-0 run that included two steal and scores from Tuelle pushed the Lady Bulldogs lead to 48-11 at the break.
In the third quarter, Hampton worked the ball inside as Megan Garland scored seven points in the quarter and Tatum Street added a basket as Hampton extended the lead to 59-15 heading to the final quarter.
The younger players got playing time in the final period as Bree Hoyle led the way with four points in the quarter.
Grubbs had a game-high 16 points, while Bowers tallied 11 points. Tuelle finished with nine points. Street tallied eight points in the game.
“We came out and shot the ball well,” Hampton Head Coach Bud Hazelwood said. “Even though they had 11 points at half, I thought we played lousy defense and wasn’t very intense. We hung on and everyone got to play a lot. We got to rest the starters and now we have the biggest game of the season in the regional semifinals – it’s win or go home. You can’t worry about playing for substate or a state tournament, you have to worry about playing the regional semifinals. Bottom line is it’s the biggest game of the year.”
Abbie Hyde paced Washburn with 12 points.
The Lady Bulldogs move on to face the Lady Huskies, who recorded an upset of District 2 top-seed Cosby on Monday night. Tipoff at Chuckey-Doak High School is set for 7 p.m.
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