Cara De Carlo's feature on the Hampton boys' swim team:

"Hampton senior Jake Kocsis is adapting to a new role.

A year ago, Kocsis was a part of Hampton's 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay team. The Talbots took fourth and third place in those events at the 2012 WPIAL Class AA championship meet. But after graduation losses and changes in personnel, Kocsis anchors a rejuvenated relay team.

He's happy about it, too. Kocsis and three sophomores (his brother Ben, plus Daniel Williams and Matthew Bonino) form the relay squad. They bring speed to a finish like a high-octane jetboat."

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Hampton at Plum, 7:30pm

Tonight, it’s a district-wide nonsection party, so we’ve picked a couple of matchups based on fun. In this matchup designated as the one for the North, Class AAA Hampton travels to ever-solid Quad-A Plum.

The Talbots have played an impressive season. Senior forward Sara Pilarski was scoring 17.1 points per game as of the Post-Gazette’s Friday, February 1 leading scorers list.

Furthermore, Hampton’s defense is one of the WPIAL’s stingiest. Opponents’ scores look like Pittsburgh weather forecasts – they’re in the 20s and teens.

Plum will enter tonight’s game riding the momentum of a solid section season. They experienced a tough game against Class A’s North Catholic early this season , and the Mustangs know that classification means very little in the WPIAL.

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“Any time you’re traveling it’s always a little bit more of a challenge,” said Hampton head coach Mary Bukovac. The Talbots played on the road last week against Knoch. Before the section season ends, Hampton will play Mars and Kittanning as away games.

As Hampton prepared for the last part of their road schedule, they played against New Castle and Highlands (January 19 and 21). Unsurprisingly, Sara Pilarski was still scoring high – she recorded a 23-point total on January 21. The Talbots’ Amanda Reese added 14 in the same game. All game results as well as current records and standings can be found on the WPIAL 2012-13 girls’ basketball page at Post-Gazette NOW.

Tonight, Hampton plays Valley at home. Bukovac noted that the Talbots had been preparing for the Vikings as well. “We haven’t played them yet,” explained Bukovac. Hampton’s originally scheduled game with Valley was postponed due to low numbers of available Vikings’ players. Likewise, Bukovac  was cognizant of the challenges presented by having a late-season first matchup.

Tip-off between Valley and Hampton is scheduled for 7:30pm.

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Nick Tolomeo's feature on the Hampton girls' basketball team:

"Behind the best scoring defense in WPIAL Class AAA, the Hampton girls basketball team has climbed through the top of Section 1 past the halfway point of the section season.

Hampton is 12-4 overall and 7-0 in section play mostly because it is allowing 28.3 points per game. That defense gets even stingier against section opponents where the Talbots are only allowing a remarkable 16.7 points per game.

Hampton's zone defense has been nearly impenetrable in some games. It held New Castle to 21 points, Mount Pleasant to 20, Freeport to 18, Knoch to 10 and most recently it held Highlands to seven on Monday night. The Talbots have held opponents scoreless for entire quarters. New Castle did not score its first basket until the second quarter.

And the defense has come up big when it mattered the most. Against Mars, the team Hampton split the section title with last season, the Talbots defense dominated in a 46-24 win."

(Photo: Hampton coach Mary Bukovac has her team undefeated in Section 1-AAA. Peter Diana/Post-Gazette.)

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