Bulldogs knock off North Greene

By Rebecca Pierson
STAR Correspondent

   JONESBOROUGH--The dogfight was on Wednesday night at the 2003 Hardee's/Black Tie Formalwear Classic Basketball Tournament hosted by David Crockett.
   The Hampton Bulldogs took a big bite out of the North Greene Huskies, 73-51, in a losers' bracket semifinal contest.
   "We play real hard the first half," said Hampton head Coach Bud Hazelwood, his team now 1-1 on the season. "We still didn't shoot the ball real well, but we got the ball inside good tonight."
   The Bulldogs went to the locker room at the half with only a marginal lead of 22-20. They came back onto the court looking recharged and ready to fight.
   Senior Adam Miller took control of the ball offensively after the half, and scored 11 of Hampton's 25 third-quarter points.
   "Adam Miller played hard the first half, but they just weren't falling," Hazelwood said. "[In] the second half, he had 8-10 points on offensive rebounds. That sort of set the tone."
   Miller led the team with 17 points in the game.
   Junior Jacob Culler scored 16 points, 12 of which were in the final quarter.
   "He is a good athlete, if I can just get him to play under control, which he did better at. He did well tonight," the coach said. "Lucas Honeycutt, I don't know if he even took a shot or not, but he ran the team. I know everybody wants to score, but he just did a real good job running the team. Everybody is not going to be on every night, so it is different ones on different nights."
   Senior Zack Trivette totaled nine points for the game, as did junior Travis Smith, who led the team in points in Tuesday's game. Junior Shane Campbell shot for eight points. The Bulldog bench was also impressive, as 11 players added to the scoreboard.
   The one thing that hurt them throughout the game was fouls. The Huskies earned 18 points at the foul line.
   Hazelwood said: "We are a long ways away from being a good team. On defense, we had a lot of fouls tonight which is a sign of being out of position. [Zack] played a pretty good game tonight, a lot better than what he played the other night. It was a pretty good team effort, I think."
   The tournaments semifinals will be held tonight beginning at 6:30 with Cherokee facing Sullivan South, then Crockett takes on Sullivan East at 8 p.m. A consolation game is set for 5 p.m.
   On Saturday, the Bulldogs will finish the tournament facing University High at 5 p.m. for the fifth-place slot. The third-place game will be held at 6:30, and the championship game at 8 p.m.
   Then, on Monday night, Hampton will have its first regular-season match-up against Daniel Boone.