Lady Bulldogs move past pesky Oneida team 51-44 in Region 1-2A Quarters
Published 7:00 pm Saturday, March 1, 2025
Mike Hynes/Star Correspondent Lady Bulldogs coach Dewayne Humphrey focuses on gameplay.
Mike Hynes/Star Correspondent Lady Bulldog Ella Eastep finds room around the baseline in first-period play.
Mike Hynes/Star Correspondent Hannah Smith dribbles around a defender en route to a score. She finished the game with 12 points.
Mike Hynes/Star Correspondent Faye Carrico shields the ball while keeping her vision upcourt, looking for an open teammate.
Mike Hynes/Star Correspondent Piper Helle shows her vertical while providing pressure on a 3-point attempt from Oneida.
Mike Hynes/Star Correspondent The Lady Bulldogs displayed grit, fighting for multiple loose balls in the contest.
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By Ron Marvel
Star Correspondent
A raucous, packed crowd filled the stands at Hampton Elementary as the Lady Bulldogs welcomed the (11-19) Lady Indians from Oneida for the opening round of the TSSAA regional quarterfinals. Before the start of the game, Hampton’s boys coach, Ned Smith, and his family were recognized for Coach Smith’s 500th career win.
Oneida controlled the tip and scored first, then hit a 3-pointer to jump out to a 5-0 lead, but Hannah Smith answered with a 3-pointer of her own to make it 5-3 in the early going. It became evident with the Lady Indians’ size that they wanted to play a physical game, and the officials seemed to be OK with that. The Lady Bulldogs matched their physicality for the most part. Piper Helle hit one of two free throws to make it a 5-4 game at the 2:47 mark of the first period. Smith brought the Bulldog faithful to their feet with back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 10-5 with a minute and a half left in the first period. The Lady Indians hit a layup with less than a minute left to make it a 10-8 game after one period.
Oneida took the lead with a 3-pointer, but the Lady Bulldogs answered with a layup to retake the lead at the 6:46 mark of the second. The Oneida Lady Indians held a small lead for most of the second period. Faye Carrico scored off an assist from Helle to cut the lead to one point with 3:20 left in the second period. The Lady Indians went up by as many as five points when Kendall Duncan hit a long 3-pointer, but the Lady Bulldogs responded as Gracie Jenkins connected on a backdoor layup and Ella Eastep made an off-balance layup to cut the Oneida lead to one point going into the break.
The second half started with an exchange of buckets to make it 24-23. Helle hit a 3-pointer to allow the Lady Bulldogs to retake a 26-24 lead at the 4:23 mark of the third. Bulldogs coach Dewayne Humphrey called a timeout and drew up a 3-point play that Brea Hicks drained to push Hampton out to a 33-26 lead. Oneida’s Elizabeth Zackery picked up a bucket to cut the lead to five points with 1:31 left in the period. Smith hit another 3-pointer to push the lead out to eight, but Oneida responded with a 3 of its own to make it 36-31 going into the final period.
The Lady Bulldogs got some breathing room midway through the final period when Smith connected with Carrico on a bucket to push their lead out to nine. Oneida’s Larrisa Jones knocked down her shot to cut into the lead, but Hicks responded with a 3-pointer to push the lead out to 10. Any thoughts of a Lady Indians rally vanished when Smith and Estep knocked down three of four free throws. Carrico then slammed the door shut when she found Hicks on a bounce pass in the paint for an easy bucket.
Hannah Smith finished the game with 12 points, while Brea Hicks and Faye Carrico chipped in 11 and 10, respectively.
Postgame, Lady Bulldogs coach Dewayne Humphrey talked about his team’s adjustments in the locker room.
“I felt like we were going in with the intent to get to the bucket in the first but not with the intent to score. Second half, we looked to score more. They were beating us on the boards, and we did a better job of boxing out, getting rebounds, and taking advantage of second-chance opportunities.”
Lady Bulldogs senior Faye Carrico echoed her coach’s comments.
“We realized we had to play better in the second half or we would be the ones going home. They were going over us for rebounds. We had to box out, and we did our jobs at the end.”
The Lady Bulldogs will now face Alcoa in a semifinal game on Monday night at 6 p.m. at Unicoi County High School, with a Region 1-2A championship game and a substate berth on the line.
