Senior night at Hampton High was a celebration for senior girls’ career achievements but their game did not have the fairy tale ending they hoped for. Cloudland senior post Stacia Wilson’s putback of a missed free throw at the buzzer gave Cloudland a 36-34 Watauga Valley Conference basketball victory.

With under a minute left and Cloudland trailing 34-31, guard Kenzie Birchfield connected on a 3-ball to tie the game leading to the last second dramatics.

The Lady Bulldogs (8-21, 4-6 WVC) played strong defense forcing the Lady Highlanders into a terrible shooting night. The ‘Landers shot 14-for-43 (32.5 percent) overall and were just 3-for-20 (15 percent) from 3-point range.

“You have to play defense and I give Hampton a lot of credit, they played their tails off,” Lady ‘Landers head coach Mike Lunsford said. “We missed some shots we should hit, we are better shooters than that. It’s great to get a win on the road against a good basketball team. Stacia played good and the shot Kenzie made was big. She was almost in tears because she turned the ball over, but I asked her in the timeout if she could hit a three for me and she said yes.”

The ‘Dogs led through the first half and went into the locker room with a 20-11 halftime edge, but Wilson began to assert herself in the second half finishing with eight of her game-high 12 points in the second half as Cloudland trailed 24-20 going into the final period.

In the fourth quarter, the ‘Landers took their first lead on a 3-ball from Gracie Freeman and Jazmine Birchfield added a deuce to make it a 27-24 Cloudland lead.

A bucket from senior guard Brooke Hughes stopped the Cloudland run and moments later a 3-ball from senior Stephanie Campbell gave the lead back to the ‘Dogs at 29-27. The ‘Landers (20-6, 8-2) struck back with a bucket from Wilson and another deuce from Jazmine Birchfield for a 31-29 Cloudland lead.

With the score knotted at 34-34 and 4.6 seconds on the clock, Freeman went to the line for a one-and-one and missed the front end shot. Wilson gobbled up the loose ball and her put back cleared the net at the buzzer.

Campbell led the ‘Dogs with 11 points with Hughes adding nine.

BOYS

Hampton 69, Cloudland 44

This was a good game through the first two periods with Hampton (20-9, 8-2) owning a slim 25-23 advantage, but post Jordan Bentley led a second-half charge that saw the Bulldogs pull away to an easy win.

Bentley scored 21 of his game-high 23 points in the second half and Rocky Croy added 10 and Matt Hughes finished with nine – including two 3-balls – as Hampton ran away with this one.

‘Landers senior post Josh Blair scored nine first-half points on the way to a team-high 22 points and he pulled down a dozen rebounds, but minus senior guard Robert Leeper, out with the flu, the ‘Landers simply didn’t have the firepower to stay with the high octane Bulldogs offense.

Hampton led 41-32 through three quarters and put on an offensive clinic in the fourth quarter with 28 points. Bentley hit three trey’s and Hughes connected on two as the ‘Dogs fast-breaking offense simply had too many open looks for Cloudland to adequately defend.

“Bentley played really well and shot the ball really well,” Bulldogs head coach Ned Smith said. “Garrett (Vines) had seven assists and I thought we got the ball where it needed to be. We had 17 assists as a team and did a good job sharing the ball. I like sharing the ball and unselfish play.”

GIRLS

Cloudland 36-34

Cloudland (36)

Wilson 12, Benfield 2, Freeman 6, Vines 4, K. Birchfield 6, J. Birchfield 6.Hampton (34)

Campbell 11, Carden 5, Hughes 9, Guinn 6, Collins 2, Heaton 1.

Cloudland 4 7 9 16 – 36

Hampton 11 9 4 10 – 34

3-point goals : 3 (K. Birchfield 2, Freeman), H 2 (Campbell, Hughes)

BOYS

Hampton 69-44

Cloudland (44)

Birchfield 7, Shell 7, Johnson 3, J. Blair 22, Bentley 2, Coffey 3.

Hampton (69)

Hill 3, Vines 4, Oaks 6, Croy 10, Bentley 23, C. Jones 2, Tolley 6, Hughes 9, Lyons 4.

Cloudland 13 10 9 12 – 44

Hampton 13 12 16 28 – 69

3-point goals : C 3 (Shell, Johnson, J. Blair), H 9 (Bentley 5, Hughes 2, Tolley, Hill)