BLUFF CITY— If Coach Bud Hazelwood’s Hampton Lady Bulldogs could have produced offensively in the second and third quarter the way they did in the first and last, the outcome of Tuesday evening’s contest with Sullivan East may have had a different ending.

However, the Lady Patriots did enough in the middle quarters to carry them to a 55-50 win over the Lady ‘Dogs in the Triten Insurance Thanksgiving Classic being played at the Dyer Dome on the campus of Sullivan East High School.

It was the Lady ‘Dogs who held the upper hand after the first quarter as Alexus Grubbs was 3-of-3 from beyond the arc to score nine points to stake Hampton to a 15-7 advantage after one.

The Lady Patriots came to life in the second quarter behind Brandy Watkins who helped East go on a 10-0 run to quickly turn the tide on Hampton. Watkins tickled the twine for 10 points in the stanza as East took a 30-24 lead to the locker room.

East came out of the break and continued to put points on the board as the Lady Patriots tallied 16 in the third quarter while defensively holding Hampton to eight points as Grubbs continued to add to her scoring column with five in the period.

Leading 46-32 heading into the final period, the Lady Patriots looked like they had the game under control.

As East started to live and die by launching treys that were missing the mark badly, Lady ‘Dog center Megan Garland was cleaning the boards and behind Grubbs and Shyanne Tuelle, Hampton came roaring back.

Trailing 46-36 with 5:54 remaining Hampton narrowed the gap to only one, 47-46 with 2:47 to play. Grubbs was doing most of the damage offensively hitting for 10 points in the frame.

Grubbs received plenty of help from Garland who had a couple of nice buckets underneath the goal while Tuelle and Hope Bridgeman tallied a field goal apiece.

Lady Patriot Kara Stafford hit both foul shots with 34.7 seconds left to extend the East lead to 51-48 and Hampton could not recover in dropping the nightcap of the opening day of action.

Grubbs finished with a game-high 28 points to show the way for the Lady ‘Dogs. Tuelle added 11 points while Garland recorded six.

Kinzey Hill buried a trey and Bridgeman finished with two points for Hampton.

Stafford logged 18 points for the winners. Watkins finished with 15 points.

The Lady Bulldogs will be back on the court Wednesday at 4:30 pm as they take on the Tennessee High Lady Vikings, a 55-31 winner over Unicoi County.