Hampton leads Baldwin's shutdown win
MacArthur Lady Generals sophomore point guard Courtney Noakes (10) drives to the basket during the third quarter against the Baldwin Lady Bruins at MacArthur High School. (Jan. 7, 2011) Credit: Christopher Pasatieri
Baldwin worked its shell game to perfection Friday night.
The defending Nassau County Class AA champions used a swarming, sleight-of-hand defense to register a thorough 52-21 victory over host MacArthur in a Conference AA-2 girls basketball game.
"We work the shell drill in practice every day - two [defensive] players on the elbow, two on the block and the guard denies the ball," point guard Alex Hampton said. "Clog up the paint, work hard on defense and it pays off."
Hampton was out of her shell from the start. She was a dominant force in the first quarter, scoring 10 of her game-high 18 points and setting the tone with a handful of steals. Hampton nailed back-to-back three-pointers, made an open-court steal and drove for a lefty layup, and hit another outside shot. She closed the quarter with a sharp pass to Kiera Corbin (eight points) who beat the buzzer from the corner to make it 14-6.
The Lady Bruins (8-1, 4-0) broke it open in the second quarter with a 10-0 run that featured another lefty layup on the break by the righthanded Hampton and a drive through traffic that made it 24-7. Baldwin, which got 10 points from Katie Greene, held the Lady Generals (6-3, 2-1) to three points in the third quarter and four in the fourth quarter.
Hampton had another nifty solo effort in the third, stripping a MacArthur player clean at midcourt and swooping in for another lefty layup.
"It's kind of risky at times," Hampton admitted of her reach-in tactics, "but it feels good when it works and you can go all the way to the basket. For some reason, I like to attack the basket with my left hand, even though I shoot righthanded. I write lefty, so I guess it just feels right."
The junior is writing a nice career story. She's been a varsity player since the eighth grade, a starter for a third straight season and the MVP of last season's Nassau playoffs.
"She's a gym rat, always working on her game," Baldwin coach Tom Catapano said.
Defense, of course, is a big part of that.
"We spend half the practice on that shell drill," Catapano said. "We're making a 'nutshell' that teams can't penetrate. The kids are buying into the concept of team defense. It teaches them to play on the ball or off the ball."
Hampton and her teammates were on the ball all night.
