Check out my grow, I began flowering at 9" or so.
If you're using halogens, i'm not really sure how you might be able to spread light around the plant. But... if you can hook yourself up 2/3 27 Watt CFL's to the sides.... This will cause the plant to focus growing moer branches from the sides instead on focusing on growing tall the few it has, and the more tops for you.
And make sure you're doing your share of topping and fimming, plays a big roll in trying to maintain height. And if it gets too tall, you could always bend and tie.
Goodluck.