Howling all the way to State… Hampton Jr. Bulldogs earn second consecutive TMSAA East Sectional title

Published 12:09 am Tuesday, February 11, 2020

By Ivan Sanders

BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
KINGSPORT – As the seconds ticked away, the Hampton Jr. Bulldogs realization of a second straight trip to the TMSAA state championship became a reality as Coach Dewayne Humphrey’s team put away an athletic Boones Creek Barr team by a 47-33 score.
The Jr. ‘Dogs (26-3) won the game the way much the same way as all they did in all their 26 other wins and that was with a smothering full-court defense and by attacking the glass offensively to earn the victory.
Hampton held the Barrs to six points each in the first two quarters while taking a 19-12 lead to the locker room.
The Jr. ‘Dogs relied on their top three scorers to move the momentum to their side as they fed their big man, Hayden Campbell, on the inside and Campbell responded with eight hard-earned points.
Chandler Smith once again was a stabilizing force as he hit five first-quarter points to help Hampton start their charge. Dylan Trivett came alive in the second quarter as the silky-smooth guard hit for six points to help build the seven-point lead.
In the second half, the Bulldogs played a consistent offense that saw Hampton score 14 points in each of the third and fourth quarter to salt the game away and earn the state berth.
The Jr. ‘Dogs hit 10-of-14 from the free-throw line in the fourth period.
Campbell, who was named the MVP of the East Sectional, recorded 18 points to lead Hampton. Trivett followed with 15 points.
One of the unsung heroes in this one was Dominic Burleson who recorded seven points but whose hustle on the defensive side of the ball and crashing the boards resulted in second chances for the Bulldog offense.
Smith finished with five points while Michael Anspaugh logged two points.
Campbell finished with a double-double with 14 rebounds and added five high-school level rejections. Trivett finished with four rebounds, three assists, three steals, and one block.
Burleson added three rebounds and a steal. As a team, the Bulldogs had 29 rebounds in the game.
“It was one of the closest basketball games we have had all season and I never really thought it was in hand until the last little bit,” said Humphrey after the contest. “I can’t speak enough about how hard these kids have worked through just different adversities and different things going on.
“We are blessed as coaches just to be able to coach these kids because they have bought in and it’s all about the team and they are really an exceptional group to coach.”
The opportunity to make it back to the State championship didn’t just start when the new season started according to Humphrey.
“This has been a goal of ours since last February,” Humphrey added. “These kids started playing games back in March playing travel ball against travel teams and these kids have really taken some beatings in the spring against hand-picked travel teams from Atlanta, Spartanburg, and Memphis – places like that and by the end of the summer we weren’t winning most of those games but we were competing.
“They bought into the fact that we can play with them and that we could make it back to the State and all their hard work has paid off.”
Hampton plays the winner of the Lester Prep and John P. Freeman game on Friday evening at 8:30 pm central time in one semifinal game at Stewart’s Creek Middle School in Smyrna.

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