Battle scars

 Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies are road warriors — and they have the battle scars to prove it. Despite a variety of physical injuries sustained last week, head coach Chad Ostenson’s crew brought home two more quadrant wins over Thermopolis and Buffalo, 44-29 and 51-46 respectively.
“It was a rough weekend for us and we’re kind of a M.A.S.H. unit now,” Ostenson sighed. “McKenzie Rose broke her arm in the JV game, and Tiernan Stanton broke a tooth in Thermop. In Buffalo, Jayde Harrington hurt her knee, Mercedes Voelker rolled her ankle and Shelby Tidyman broke two teeth and split her chin open. Shelby and Tiernan got their teeth fixed, so they look as pretty as ever, and we’re coming back but we will probably sit Mercedes out for the week since this week isn’t that big of a deal.”
On Thursday, the Lady Bobcats threw a box-and-one junk defense on Newcastle where they face guarded Jaylen Ostenson who scored 28 points against them the first time the two teams played. Coach Ostenson admitted that his team was not as prepared as they could have been for the strategy, and also noted that he was a bit surprised this is the first time they’d seen a junk defense this year.
“I’d been waiting for the junk, but didn’t have enough in for how they packed it in on Jay and on us in the paint,” Ostenson admitted. “But we’re a pretty solid bunch so though it took away some points from Jay, we still did fine. It really did us a favor in the long run so we could get ready and we still won by 15 and held them to just 29 points.”
Ostenson, who averages more than 20 points per game was held to just seven points on the night with five of those coming from the charity stripe. Fortunately, the Lady Dogies are not a one-trick-pony team so while Ostenson drew a great deal of defensive attention, her teammates took opportunities to put points on the board.
“It was great to see other kids step up,” Ostenson nodded. “Shawnee Miles came in off the bench and led us in scoring, and six other girls scored for us as well.”
Ostenson admitted his team didn’t shoot overly well, going seven for 29 from beyond the arc, but defensively the team played very well racking up 16 steals, out-rebounding them by five and limited them to only nine offensive boards. 
Miles ended the night with 11 points, while MacKenzie Conzelman was next with eight. Ostenson had her seven, Voelker and Tidyman each added six, while
Claire Beastrom, Stanton and Hunter McFarland chipped in two apiece.
On Saturday, the ladies headed to Buffalo for a rematch against the Lady Bison. Playing the Johnson County team on their home court is always a challenge, and Buffalo was determined to even the score after losing to Newcastle by 25 the last time they met.
Newcastle held a lead at the end of every quarter and were in control for most of the contest, however they didn’t run away with the win like they had in January, and were out-rebounded by 15, giving up 20 offensive boards. Ostenson’s crew also lost the turnover contest committing 21 to Buffalo’s nine. 
Despite those discrepancies, the Lady Bison were only able to enjoy a lead of four at the most for a brief time during the third quarter. Ostenson admitted that at that point in the game, his squad needed to have an attitude adjustment.
“I called a timeout because we needed to have a pretty good discussion about hustling and getting our tails back on defense,” he chuckled. “We can do some really good things pretty quick and then we can have some lulls where we don’t do those things so well, so we just had to remind them.”
Apparently, the reminder was just what the squad needed as they came out and went on an eight-point run in the last minute to extend their lead
to seven by the end of the
third quarter.
Buffalo was able to outscore Newcastle 20-18 in the final quarter of play, but it was not enough to make up the deficit.
“Anytime you come out of Buffalo with a win, it’s good,” Ostenson smiled. “Mercedes went down in the third quarter, and Shelby was out for a while with foul trouble and then again with her injury, so players from the bench once again stepped up for us. Shawnee had another good game, Mack hit a big three and some big free-throws down the stretch, and Claire had some really solid minutes and did a really good job for us.” 
Ostenson was free to play her game and scored 26 points on the night and six other Dogies made it into the scoring column as well. Stanton and Conzelman each had six, Miles and Tidyman four, Voelker ended with three and McFarland contributed two points.  
“We will play Buffalo at regionals in Buffalo, so this was a good game for us to get in the right mindset,” Ostenson nodded. “It will be another tough battle with a lot riding on the outcome, so we need to be ready.” 
This week, the Lady Dogies will finish up the regular season with one more road trip to Douglas on Friday and then will close it out with a last home game against Wheatland on Saturday. Friday games are at 4 p.m. and 5:30 and Saturday they are at 2 p.m. and 3:30.