Bulldogs boys win on buzzer beater in overtime

HAMPTON—- In a wild finish it was the Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs boys basketball team that came away with the win after a buzzer beater by Aaden Keehn after getting an offensive rebound to beat the buzzer in the Bulldogs 67-65 win over the Iowa Falls-Alden Cadets on Jan 7. The Bulldogs won their second game in a row and improved to 3-5 on the year.

The game winning shot came after the Cadets tied the game at 65-65 with a three-pointer in the final seconds and the Bulldogs went quickly down the court and a shot attempt went off the rim as Keehn got the rebound and put the ball back in.

Head coach Brian Niesen said that getting a second close win in a row has had an impact in the locker room.

“It is a fun locker room right now,” Niesen said. “Obviously winning is fun but winning in dramatic fashion is extra fun and I am really happy for our kids. We have good kids who work hard and we had a rough start to the season but we did not hang our heads and we had some good practices over break and I am really happy with our kids.”

The game was a back and forth one the entire night as in the first quarter the Bulldogs jumped out to a 11-5 lead with less than 4:00 left in the first quarter. The Bulldogs then made it a double digit lead at 16-5 after a basket by Keehn with 1:04 left in the quarter and the quarter ended with the Bulldogs leading 18-5.

But in the second quarter, it was the Cadets who had the advantage as they went on a 8-0 run to make it 18-13 with around 5:00 left in the half. The Bulldogs led 22-18 with 3:00 left but the Cadets went on a 5-0 run to take a 23-22 but the Bulldogs were able to retake the lead later and the teams entered the half with the Bulldogs up 24-23.

Both teams scored 13 points in the thor quarter and the Bulldogs entered the fourth quarter up 37-36. The two teams exchanged buckets in a tight fourth quarter as the Bulldogs found themselves down 51-49 in the final minutes. The Bulldogs tied the game at 51-51 with 1:13 left in regulation. The Cadets made a three-pointer with less than 40 seconds to go to take a 54-53 lead and then made 1-of-2 free throws to make it 55-53 with 20 seconds left. With around 14 seconds left the Bulldogs had the ball and got the ball into the paint where Brady Harr missed a shot only to get his own rebound right under the basket and put the ball in to tie it at 55-55 with five seconds left. A half-court heave by the Cadets missed as the game went into overtime.

With how the game went, Niesen said the Bulldogs just kept fighting.

“We made some good runs and they made some good runs and I felt that for the most part we kept our composure pretty good,” Niesen said. “We just made a play at the end as Keehn made another big offensive rebound and bucket at the end and Brady was huge, just doing everything for us.”

With how close the game was in the final  minutes in both the fourth quarter and overtime, Niesen said he told the players to get the ball inside to Harr with how the Bulldogs had the size advantage.

“We threw the ball inside and something good happened,” Niesen said. “That was the message and finding their shooters Karen Kalous got hot for them a couple times as we did not identify him very good. Those were the main things we talked about and keep playing hard and offensive rebounding.”

The team went 26-for-57 from the field for a 45.6 shooting percentage and the team went 4-for-13 from three-point range and 11-for-18 from the free-throw line. Brady Harr had a game high 28 points and had a double-double as he set a school record with 28 rebounds in a single game. Caden Woods added 13 points, Tramaine Horton scored 12 points, Connor Miller scored eight points, and Aaden Keehn scored six points.

The Bulldogs’ next game is at home on Jan. 16. against Clarion-Goldfield-Dows at 7:45 p.m.