Bulldogs Girls Season Comes to an End with Loss to Wolverines

DIKE - The Hampton-Dumont-CAL girls basketball season has come to an end with a 37-34 loss to the Dike-New Hartford Wolverines in the first round of the Class 3A Region 3 tournament on Saturday, Feb. 14. The loss came after the Bulldogs defeated the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Cowgirls 55-11 in the last game of the regular season on Tuesday, Feb. 10. Despite the season coming to an end, Bulldogs' head coach Miranda Stafford was proud of how much her team improved over the season.

"This is probably my most improved group of girls overall out of any group I have coached," Stafford said. "They always stepped up to a challenge and listened to what was being asked of them. The great thing about this group is that we had very little varsity experience coming in this year, and next year we return everyone."

The Bulldogs faced the Wolverines earlier this season, losing to them 45-19 on Dec. 9. The Bulldogs were much more competitive on Saturday, pushing the Wolverines to the very end. After being outscored 15-10 in the first quarter, the Bulldogs won the second quarter 5-4 to cut the Wolverines' lead to 19-15 at the end of the first half. The Wolverines won the third quarter 10-8 and the Bulldogs were almost able to comeback, winning the fourth quarter 11-8. Sophomore MacKenzy Valley led the Bulldogs with 20 points. Junior Madison Heilskov and sophomore Bridget Brocka both scored six points and junior Addison Aalbers scored two points.

The Bulldogs finished the season with a record of 7-15 and 5-9 in conference play. Coach Stafford spoke on what she will take away from this year's team.

"This is a team that wanted to learn and improve, and they were very coachable," she said. "They learned a lot about the game of basketball this year. They were a fun group of kids who kept us on our toes with their fun personalities."

With no seniors on this year's team, the Bulldogs will return everyone for next season. With their improvements near the end of the season, the Bulldogs will look to take the next step as a program in the 2026-27 season.