The Hampton Bulldogs won their third straight game on Monday at Van Huss / White gym with a 62-58 overtime victory over Unicoi County in a nonconference game. The Dogs (11-7 overall) went into the half on a roll with Jaydon Livingston draining a trey at the buzzer to tie the game at 25-25 and a nip and tuck game continued through the second half.

“It gave us a big boost,” Bulldogs head coach Ned Smith said. “It was a big shot. (Unicoi) post (Troy) Podvin was a man tonight, he got 29 on us and was a man.”

The ‘Dogs went into the final stanza with a 38-36 lead aided by trey’s from Matt and Mibby Hughes but Podvin opened the fourth with a bucket in the paint for the Blue Devils. Brock Thompson scored a deuce for UC to take a two-point lead, but Hampton went on a six-point run to grab a four-point advantage at 44-40.

In the run, Livingston, senior guard Dru Owens and senior forward Hunter Davenport each had buckets but Podvin responded with a three-point play to cut the ‘Dogs lead to 44-43 with 2:58 left in regulation.

Senior Gavin Hardin gave Hampton a three-point lead with just seven seconds left on the clock but Thompson connected on a triple from the corner with 0.8 left to force overtime. Thompson had five trey’s and 19 points for the Devils.

In the overtime period, Davenport’s three-point play gave the ‘Dogs a 54-51 lead, but Thompson came through for UC once again with his last trey to tie the game once again. From there it was a free throw contest with Hampton connecting on eight straight from the line while UC was two-for-two and Podvin hit a bucket down low.

Livingston led the Bulldogs with 16 points with Davenport adding nine and Hardin eight.

“It was a big win for us,” Smith said. “It was an exciting game with a good crowd and atmosphere and we had a balanced scoring attack.”

Hampton 62-58 (OT)

Unicoi Co. (58)

Thompson 19, Casey 7, Podvin 27, Strother 3, Lingerfelt 2.

Hampton (62)

Owens 7, Livingston 16, Davenport 9, Jones 5, Bentley 7, Hardin 8, Ma. Hughes 6, Mi. Hughes 3.

Unicoi Co. 16 9 11 13 9 – 58

Hampton 10 15 13 11 12 – 62

3-point goals: UC 5 (Thompson 5), H 7 (Ma. Hughes 2, Livingston 2, Owens 1, Mi. Hughes 1, Jones 1)

Girls

Unicoi Co 50, Hampton 42

The power of three was too much for the Lady Bulldogs as Chloe Powers dropped six dimes on Hampton for the Lady Blue Devils and scored a game-high 18 points. Hampton was just four-for-27 (14.8 percent) from beyond the arc while conversely Unicoi County connected on eight-for-21 (38 percent).

“We are traditionally known for getting off to slow starts,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Bud Hazelwood said. “The effort was there, I wasn’t disappointed in that but we couldn’t throw it in the ocean.”

Hampton fell behind 10-7 after one period and Unicoi extended to a 25-17 halftime lead with Powers scoring 12 first-half points.

Senior wing Shyanne Tuelle heated up in the third period for Hampton (6-12) with 10 points – including a pair of treys – but the Lady ‘Dogs were unable to hold Powers under control as she dropped two more bombs on Hampton in the third period.

UC (12-7) went into the final period holding a comfortable 43-30 advantage and put the pedal to metal from there.

“We had a lot of good looks tonight, we just didn’t make them,” Hazelwood said. “It’s time for us to start playing, it isn’t early in the season anymore.”

Unicoi Co 50-42

Unicoi Co.

Powers 18, Padgett 10, Lynch 1, Hendrickson 9, Bailey 6, Vance 2, Griffith 4.

Hampton (42)

Campbell 8, Royston 6, Tuelle 15, Guinn 2, Hill 9, Camillo 2.

Unicoi Co. 10 15 18 17 – 50

Hampton 7 10 13 12 – 42

3-point goals: UC 8 (Powers 6, Hendrickson 2), H 4 (Tuelle 3, Hill 1)