MOUNTAIN CITY – The battle between Hampton and Johnson County – although not a conference game – is spirited just the same. That was the case on Thursday evening at Ray Shoun gym as the Longhorns hosted the Bulldogs.

A nip and tuck game came down to the final seconds as Hampton pulled out a 61-58 road win.

“We have to do a better job at free throws,” said Bulldogs head coach Ned Smith. “We hit just 45 percent from the free throw line. We did win the battle on the boards. Coby had six, Jose had five and Coby had five assists. We needed a good, tight game like this with tournament time coming. Johnson County is a good team, Austin (Atwood) does a good job with them and we played just good enough to pull it out.”

Hampton (17-6) led 16-14 after one quarter and the game was knotted at 18-18 when the Bulldogs went on a 9-2 run to take a 27-20 lead with 3:02 left in the first half. After a trey from Nathan Norris and a pair of deuces from Coby Jones the ‘Dogs took a 34-28 lead with just over a minute left in the half. The ‘Dogs led 36-30 at the break with Jones 12 points leading the way.

Sophomore sharpshooting guard Bud Icenhour hit his first two three-ball attempts but twisted his left ankle and did not return to action for the Longhorns. He finished with six points.

Johnson County (6-14) scored the first six points of the third period to tie the score at 36-36 before a Jones trey made it a 39-36 Hampton lead. Wyatt Lyons followed with a layup bucket to give the ‘Dogs a 41-38 lead at the 3:51 mark.

Nathan Arnold tied the game at 41-41 with a trey from the corner but Lyons answered for the ‘Dogs. Hampton went on a seven point run with Jones completing a three-point play and Lyons was good for a pair of baskets in the run as Hampton led 48-41 after three quarters.

Jose Velazquez opened the fourth period with a breakaway bucket for Hampton, but Jose Guzman knocked down a trey and Cody Bailie hit a layup bucket to make it a 50-46 game with 6:29 to go in the final stanza.

Guzman hit a bank shot for JC to close it to a two point game. JC made it a nine point run on a bucket from Brandon Vannoy to tie the score at 50-50 before Dakota Crumley ended the run with a bucket in the paint for Hampton.

Blake Atwood hit a free throw for JC, but Adam McClain and Charlie Butler each hit two pointers for the ‘Dogs to give Hampton a 56-52 lead with 1:28 to go. After a pair of free throws from McClain, Atwood hit a long range shot to make it 58-55 with 23 seconds left on the game clock.

JC was forced to foul and McClain hit both his shots from the line to stake Hampton to a five point lead at 60-55 with 21 ticks remaining. Guzman rushed down the floor and buried a trey as the ‘Horns closed to 60-58 with 15 seconds left.

“Early on Hampton hurt us on the boards and their offensive rebounding kept them in the game,” Longhorns head coach Austin Atwood said. “Guzman made a couple of big three’s and big players make big shots. Thought coming in that if we held them to 54 or under we could win. We know the most important part of the season is ahead for us. South is a must win for our position in the conference.”

Jones led Hampton with 18 points while Guzman had as many for the ‘Horns.

GIRLS

Hampton 77, Johnson County 62

Hampton (14-8) put this one away quickly with 25 points in the opening period with sophomore guard Shyanne Tuelle scoring 13 of those points and post Megan Garland adding six. Johnson County came to life in the second period behind a pair of three-balls from Michala Cretsinger and a pair of two point buckets from Kelsi Terril.

The Lady Longhorns (5-22) could not keep up with the torrid scoring pace of Tuelle however as she had 24 first half points and Hampton led 44-23 at the half.

Cretsinger added two three-point plays in the third period but could not close the gap on Hampton as the Lady Bulldogs led 61-40 going into the final stanza. Garland added six more points for Hampton in the third period to give her 14 at that juncture.

With Tuelle, Grubbs and Garland playing sparingly in the fourth period Johnson County was able to shave the ‘Dogs lead to 69-50 with 3:31 left in regulation.

“We got a chance to get a lot of players in that normally don’t play as much,” Hazelwood said. “We are searching

Tuelle led all scorers with 28 points while Garland finished with 14. Cretsinger led the ‘Horns with 26.

GIRLS

Hampton 77-62

Hampton (77)

Campbell 5, Tuelle 28, Bridgeman 6, Neumann 1, Grubbs 10, Guinn 1, Hill 8, Hoyle 4, Garland 14.

Johnson Co. (62)

C.Brooks 9, Terrill 13, Nichols 5, Cole 3, Duperry 6, Cretsinger 26.

Hampton 25 19 17 16 – 77

Johnson Co. 6 17 17 22 – 62

3-point goals: H 0-6 (Tuelle 0-1, Bridgeman 0-2, Grubbs 0-2, Campbell 0-1), JC 7-15 (C.Brooks 1-2, Terrill 1-1, Nichols 1-1, Cole 0-1, Cretsinger 4-10)

BOYS

Hampton 61-58

Hampton (61)

McClain 10, Jones 18, Norris 9, Lyons 8, Velazquez 8, Butler 2, Crumley 6.

Johnson Co. (58)

Icenhour 6, Guzman 18, Atwood 4, Arnold 5, Vannoy 12, Bailie 11, Lewis 2.

Hampton 16 20 12 13 – 61

Johnson Co. 14 16 11 17 – 58

3-point goals: H 2-8 (McClain 0-3, Jones 2-4, Norris 0-1), JC 6-15 (Guzman 2-6, Icenhour 2-3, Atwood 1-2, Arnold 1-1, Vannoy 0-1, Bailie 0-1, Lewis 0-1)