Basketball Preview: Hampton Hawks vs. Dorchester Longhorns
The Hampton Hawks will head out on the road to take on the Dorchester Longhorns at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Hampton has struggled recently with seven losses in a row, while the Longhorns will arrive with four straight wins.
Last Thursday, Hampton came up short against the Eagles and fell 38-28.
Despite the loss, Hampton got a solid performance out of Nevaeh Lukassen, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds and four blocks. That was a full 64.3% of Hampton's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Gavin Gilmore was another key contributor, scoring six points along with 12 rebounds and two steals.
Even though they lost, Hampton smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. This was only their tenth loss (out of 12 games) when they hit their own glass that hard.
Dorchester proved they can win big on Tuesday (they won by 22) but on Thursday they proved they can win the close ones too. They had just enough and edged Nebraska Lutheran out 40-37.
Hampton's loss was their sixth straight at home, which dropped their record down to 2-15. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 27.5 points per game. As for Dorchester, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 15-5 record this season.
Hampton was dealt a bruising 67-28 loss at the hands of the Longhorns in their previous matchup two weeks ago. The game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Hampton was down 44-20.
