Hampton cruises past UH, sets up rematch with Unaka for district title

ELIZABETHTON — The start to the second season looked an awful lot like much of the first season for Hampton on Saturday night. After an unbeaten conference record in the regular season, District 1-1A's No. 1-seeded Bulldogs kept their momentum rolling with a 73-49 victory over University High to open the league's tournament. "I thought the kids played extremely hard," Bulldogs head coach Ned Smith said. "Had 16 assists, thought we shared the ball well. Had eight steals and nine deflections. We wanted to play our style, up-and-down. I thought our kids played really well. Our bench gave us good minutes there." Hampton (21-8) came out of the gates strong to grab control of the game, and it never let it go. The two sides traded baskets to open the contest, as UH (3-23) trailed just 6-5 in the opening minutes. However, the Bulldogs went on a 15-0 run through much of the period. They led by 14 points after the first frame of action. "You want to come out and play hard defense," Smith said. "They're a good team. They're very explosive. Kept telling our kids, 'You can't let up because they can hit 12, 13, 14 3's a game.' You can't hardly let up or they're right back in it." Hampton's halftime lead was still 14 before they opened the second half on an 8-0 spurt to put an early kibosh on any UH comeback attempts. It methodically worked its lead out to as much as 25 in the second half. Freshman Colby Clark led the Bulldogs with 20 points. He also grabbed five rebounds. "He just keeps learning and getting better," Smith said. "He's just a great kid to coach." Elsewhere for Hampton, senior Tuff Robinson stuffed the stat sheet. Robinson scored 18 points, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, dished out five assists, had five steals and three deflections. Chase Davenport chipped in 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting. University High was down a man, as senior Knox Poston suffered an ankle injury in the Bucs' play-in game against Cloudland. Janson West carried much of the offensive load in his place, netting a team-high 16 points. No. 2 Unaka 61, No. 3 North Greene 49 In a physical nightcap, the Rangers earned their third win of the season over North Greene, punching their ticket to the district title game in the process. "(North Greene) is a good basketball team," Rangers head coach Aaron Dugger said. "This league and this tournament is the best in any classification from here to Knoxville. This district is so tough. It's loaded from top to bottom." Unaka (19-6) had a strong start to the game, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The Huskies (10-20) didn't get on the scoreboard until the 1:50 mark of the first period, when Isaac Gaby hit a triple. Still, the Rangers held a 9-3 lead after eight minutes. They extended that advantage to 11 points by halftime, and still led by the margin with four and a half minutes left in the third quarter. Over the next 1:30, North Greene exploded on an 11-0 run, tying the game with another Gaby 3-pointer. Unaka took the shot and kept fighting, though. The No. 2 seed answered back with a 10-0 run of its own that closed the third quarter and bled into the fourth. The Huskies closed the gap to within six points in the closing minutes, but could never get any closer. John Hardin, who went for 50 points earlier this year against the Huskies, ended his night with 16 hard-earned points. North Greene was extra physical with the Ranger post player, which drew fouls but also frustrated the senior. "I thought they called some (fouls) because they were trying so hard to be physical with him and keep him off his spots," Dugger said. "He handled it real well. He got frustrated, got that technical, and that's typically not John. I know he was frustrated because they were banging him all over the place. But he's used to it and that's just how it is." Zach and Justius Wallin combined to shoulder much of the offensive load, with Justius posting 19 points and Zach chipping in four more. Of their combined 23 points, 17 came in the second half. Gaby had 20 points for the Huskies, including six made shots from beyond the arc. Tyler Britton netted 13 more. Up Next University High and North Greene will play for third place on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Happy Valley. Hampton and Unaka will follow for the district title game.