It was a battle throughout as Happy Valley made the short trip to VanHuss/White Thursday to face off with the Hampton Bulldogs.
With the Warriors on their tails the whole contest, the ‘Dogs held on down the fourth-quarter stretch to take a 49-44 win in nonconference action.
“We finally got a two to four point lead, and we just held on to it,” said Hampton head coach Ned Smith. “It is a great win to give us momentum heading into the district tournament.”
In the final quarter, Hampton did most of its scoring from the foul line. With 6:26 left in the game, the Warriors, trailing by five, had a bucket from Isaiah Rhodes and a 3-pointer from Chris Young to tie the game up at 38-all. Happy Valley scored six more points in the rest of the game while Hampton went 8-of-12 from the charity with a 2-pointer from Wyatt Lyons to keep ahead.
“It was a battle,” said Happy Valley head coach Chuck Babb. “We were trying to get stops and got a few. But we couldn’t get that big shot to go. They (Hampton) did a good job of getting to the rim.”
The Bulldogs were led in scoring by Wyatt Lyons, who racked up 17 points, while his teammates Jose Velazquez and Dru Owens had 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The first quarter was a low-scoring affair as the Bulldogs worked their way out to an 8-5 lead heading into the second quarter.
Hampton would roll out to a 17-9 lead before Happy Valley posted nine unanswered points in the final three minutes of the half to take an 18-17 lead before Velazquez nailed a three in final 30 seconds to give Hampton a 20-18 edge heading into the half.
A 10-2 run by the Bulldogs gave Hampton a 10-point lead. However, in the final minute of the third, Happy Valley worked to within one point of Hampton, before Owens hit a buzzer-beating three to give the Bulldogs a 37-33 lead heading into the fourth.
Happy Valley was led in scoring by Austin Hicks and Young, who both had ten each.
Happy Valley will host Unicoi tonight before Hampton hosts them on Saturday.

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