AUGUSTA — Chad Bradbury has a deal with the players on his Hampden Academy girls’ basketball team: hold a team under 37 points three games in a row and he’ll throw a pizza party.

“I owe them two-and-a-half, I think,” he said.

And maybe more. The third-ranked Broncos’ man-to-man pressure defense forced 29 turnovers as Hampden overcame No. 6 Mt. Ararat 47-27 Friday afternoon in an Eastern Class A quarterfinal at the Augusta Civic Center.

Hampden trailed 8-6 after one quarter, but then effectively cut off the inside passing lanes and rattled the Eagles, who finished 9-10.

“We were overaggressive,” Bradbury said of Mt. Ararat’s early offensive success. “Once we settled down, our ball pressure’s good, the girls are getting up in the passing lane and we did a very good job of not making anything easy for them.”

Hampden had beaten Mt. Ararat by 28 points in the regular season, using a zone defense. This time, the Broncos went strictly with a man-to-man defense. Not only did it shut down Mt. Ararat, but it also got Hampden’s offense moving.

“I think, defensively, we wore them down, and because of that we were able to get some open looks,” said Michaela Stephenson, a senior guard for Hampden.

Stephenson led Hampden’s balanced offense with 14 points. Bradbury said she is the key to Hampden’s success.

“We go the way she goes,” he said. “She’s the piston that drives our machine. She sets the tone for us and makes things happen.”

Admittedly anxious because of their high ranking, the Broncos rushed things for much of the first half and couldn’t get into a flow. But Katelyn DeRaps hit an open 3-pointer from the left of the key with 2:23 left in the second quarter, sparking an 8-0 run that gave Hampden an 18-10 lead at the half.

Reserve Jordan Maxwell had three points during that surge.

Then, after Mt. Ararat twice pulled within four in the third quarter, the Broncos went on another run. Mt. Ararat’s Molly Estes scored inside on a nice pass from Chelsea Crawford to make it 22-18, but Hampden scored the next 15 points.

DeRaps, a senior guard, began the run with two baskets, and Stephenson ended it with an open 3-pointer from the left corner. That made it 37-18 with just over six minutes remaining.

During the game-clinching run, the Eagles turned the ball over five times and missed six shots.

“We just got a little overexcited in the second half,” said Estes, who along with Mariah Cropley scored six points for the Eagles. “They had a great defense. They were intense.”

The Eagles often had difficulty simply getting the ball inbounds.

“Their defensive pressure was really good on the outside,” said Mt. Ararat Coach Kelly LaFountain. “We had a hard time getting the ball into a good position where we could pass it to our post players. … We just didn’t get in good position offensively at all.”

And when the Broncos started hitting their outside shots in the second half, they began to pull away.

“I knew it would come down to whoever started to feel comfortable (shooting) first,” said LaFountain. “They’re a good team. They have a lot of seniors who have been here before and they’re a very disciplined team.”

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com