Shooting woes plague Newcastle Dogies

Head coach Allen Von Eye’s Dogies played great defense last weekend when they hosted the Glenrock Herders in a Northeast Quadrant match-up on Friday, then traveled to Wheatland to take on the Bulldogs on Saturday.
 
Unfortunately, the squad struggled to score in both games so fell to the Herders 39-45 and then to the Bulldogs, 30-69. The loss to Wheatland will only matter in the post-season for tie-breaker purposes, however, the loss to Glenrock put the Dogies into the No. 3 seed in the Northeast for the first go-around of quadrant play. 
 
“Defensively, we did some really nice things as we have all year. We’re top eight in the state in almost everything defensively, and we showed that,” Von Eye said. “The story of the game was the same thing that has plagued us for the last couple of years, and that is we couldn’t get the ball to fall.” 
 
The first quarter was indeed a defensive one on Friday, with Glenrock taking a slim 9-6 lead into the break. Newcastle went blow-for-blow with the Herders in quarter two to maintain a three-point differential by half time.
 
“We missed inside buckets and that makes things hard for the team as a whole,” Von Eye said. “We cut really well on offense and they didn’t stop us from getting inside, but when you can’t buy a bucket, it makes it rough.”
 
The Dogies were able to put together a couple of good-looking runs in the second half to try to close the gap, however, those were stymied by defensive let-downs by Newcastle, allowing Glenrock to answer back. In the third frame, the Herders out-scored the Dogies by five to extend their lead.
 
“We traded buckets back and forth when we had those defensive lapses,” Von Eye said. “We just didn’t have good defensive transitions, which hurt us.”
 
In the first half, sending Glenrock to the charity stripe kept the Herders in the game, however, in the second half Von Eye’s crew gave up too many offensive boards and Glenrock used to their advantage.
 
Despite gaining a two-point edge on the Herders in the final quarter, the Dogies just couldn’t close the gap. 
 
“It was a good learning opportunity for us. The kids were upset and were bummed because that is a game that we all felt like we should get,” Von Eye said. “Teddy [Troftgruben] was really tough coming down the stretch and got some big buckets. He was really hard to defend, but we couldn’t get our perimeter game going.”
 
Teddy Troftgruben led his team with 13 points on the night. Pate Tavegie and JJ Lipp each had 8 points, Wyatt Cole added 6 points and Thatcher Troftgruben rounded out the scoring with 4 points. 
 
On Saturday, the Dogies traveled to Wheatland to take on an impressive Bulldog team. 
 
“It’s hard to get a true feel for what a team is going to do on film, but after seeing them live, I truly think they are going to be a team who are going to be in the mix for our conference at the end of the season,” Von Eye predicted. “They have athleticism, the physicality and the strength to do some good things.” 
 
The Dogies got off to a slow start. They got inside looks, but it was physical inside, so they couldn’t get the ball to fall again. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs were able to find the bottom of the net and pulled out to a pretty dominating lead early and finished the first quarter with a 26-5 lead over Newcastle.
 
“I thought our kids settled in during the second quarter and got into a little bit of an offensive rhythm,” Von Eye said. “They responded well and played hard the whole game.”
 
Newcastle out-scored Wheatland 13-8 in the second quarter, but the Bulldogs dominated in the second half, cruising to a decisive victory.
 
“The score doesn’t indicate how our kids played. It’s a tough venue to play in and the game didn’t look as dominating as the scoreboard would make it seem,” Von Eye said. “It’s part of the process of learning and it was a great opportunity to do that. The kids were pretty focused coming out of it regarding where we are and where we need to get to.”
 
Teddy Troftgruben once again led the Dogies with 12 points, Cole had 6, Tavegie scored 5, Lipp added 4, Will Beastrom 2 and Kyan Allen chipped in 1 point to round out the scoring. 
 
This week, the Dogies have just one game to prepare for when the Rawlins Outlaws come to town on Friday. Game times are early with junior varsity tipping off at 2:30 and varsity getting under way at 5:30.