HAMPTON – Watching a 12-point lead shrink all the way down to four as the horn sounded to end the third quarter, the Webster City boys’ basketball team could have been nervous Tuesday night.

Maybe the Lynx were. Maybe they’re just good at concealing their emotions.

Then again, based on how they reacted to the situation, maybe they weren’t worried at all.

Holding on to a 45-41 lead over Hampton-Dumont when the fourth quarter began, WCHS hunkered down and took control. Fueled by a 20-8 spurt over the final 8 minutes, the Lynx ran away from the Bulldogs to claim what looked like an easy 65-49 North Central Conference victory.

The cushion reached as many as 18 points in the final period that was dominated by the Fuhs twins, Avery and Alec. They turned in matching eight-point quarters to combine for 16 of the Lynx 20.

“The main thing we needed to do was execute because we were missing some bunnies down low,” Avery Fuhs said after he poured in a game-high 21 points, 12 coming from behind the 3-point arc. “This is a big win. We don’t want to keep it close in the fourth quarter like we have been, but we’ll take it.”

Falling behind WCHS (5-0, 3-0 NCC) and then trying to catch up late has proven to be an act of futility. Hampton-Dumont (1-3, 0-3 NCC) was forced to come out of its zone defense midway through the final stanza and the Lynx feasted on the man-to-man set. Both Fuhs boys blew by their defenders for lay-ups and Colt Richardson buried a baseline jumper off an Alec Fuhs drive and dish to put the Bulldogs away.

Alec Fuhs went off for 16 points and eight assists and Richardson collected another double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

WCHS head coach Marty McKinney wasn’t surprised that Hampton-Dumont was able to close the gap in the third. Foul troubles forced him to juggle his lineup, but in the final period he turned the game over to his seniors.

They responded nicely.

“We expected them to make a run. We knew they weren’t going to quit,” McKinney said. “But our seniors stepped up and made plays when they needed to. In the second half we really wanted to extend that lead and make them have to match up with us. Halfway through the fourth quarter when they did that we did a nice job of handling the ball and got some easy looks.”

Having the twins, as well as veteran guard Landon Daniels on the floor to handle the ball left Hampton-Dumont lunging at air.

“If teams pressure us we just try to get the ball in the hands of one of us,” Avery Fuhs said of the guard trio. “If teams want to do that, we’ll take that.”

Daniels finished withs six points and four steals while defending Bulldogs’ leader Dayton Gooder. Daniels limited him to just two field goals and 12 points, six points below his season average.

McKinney is more than happy with the offensive production out of his three double-digit scorers, but eventually they will need assistance.

“We do need production out of the other guys, but we’ll take it out of our big three right now,” McKinney said. “Brandon Ausenhus (six points) gave us some good offense. We need to get Landon going, but he’s working his tail off defensively.”

Avery Fuhs and Richardson combined for 23 first-half points to help WCHS build a 36-25 lead. A triple by Alec Fuhs – one of his three on the night – just before the buzzer sounded pushed the Lynx advantage to 11.

Another trey from Alec Fuhs, this time from the corner, made it 41-29 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter. Hampton-Dumont closed on a 12-4 run to get within four.

Evan Koenen led the Bulldogs with 15 points. Coleton Barz added nine and Spencer Clark chipped in seven.

WCHS will close out the pre-holiday portion of its schedule on Friday at home against Clarion-Goldfield-Dows. Prior to tip-off, former Lynx all-state guard and the program’s all-time leading scorer Jared Josten will be inducted into the WCHS Athletics Hall of Fame.