Bison end season for Dogie men

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies ended their hoops season short of achieving their goal of earning a trip to the state tourney last Thursday. Head coach Allen Von Eye compared his squad’s 25-71 loss against the Buffalo Bison at the Northeast Quadrant Regional Tournament in Douglas as a succinct summation of a season which has presented its share of obstacles.
“What played out was ultimately an illustration of what our season was...inconsistency that we couldn’t rise above,” Von Eye sighed. “From the onset there was something that was in our way. There was always something we had to rise above, something we had to re-track or readjust, and start all over — and that just made it tough.”
As the No. 4 seed from the Northeast, the Dogies were tasked with taking on the very talented, No. 1-seeded Bison, so putting together a perfect game was of the utmost importance. Though they began the contest aggressively and jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead, Newcastle was unable to maintain their momentum and quickly succumbed to Buffalo’s arsenal.
“I figured they’d come out in man against us, but also figured that if we were successful in attacking their man defense they’d drop into their 3-2 pretty quick, and that’s exactly what they did,” Von Eye explained. “Our kids did a really nice job against their man initially. We got to the rim, and got some buckets and just did some really nice things inside.”
Buffalo quickly called a time-out to revamp their defensive approach, ramp up their pressure and switch to a zone. After the change-up, the Dogies initially got a little too quick-triggered offensively, which is what Von Eye explained has been an Achilles heel for his team against a zone, but they were also able to get some pretty good looks. 
“When you have all those people in front of you in a zone, it makes it feel like those threes are wide open,” he frowned. “But when you’re an inconsistent shooting team, that’s exactly what the defense wants you to do. They’re baiting you into taking those perimeter shots, and trying to keep you away from the rim.”
The Dogies took the bait and put up four consecutive threes which were unsuccessful, while the Bison countered with buckets of their own to erase the Newcastle lead.
“When you go one-and-done against a good basketball team, you’re giving them the confidence they need,” said Von Eye. “They were a little shell shocked at the beginning. You could see it in their demeanor and in Tanner’s [Hart] demeanor. They weren’t expecting us to come out swinging like that, but they recovered, settled in and decided to take care of business.”
Newcastle just couldn’t get anything to fall after that. Even when they got to the rack, the ball just couldn’t find the bottom of the net.
“The urgency seemed to fade a bit, and the physicality we met at the rim also started to get to us and we started to fade or adjust our shots,” admitted Von Eye. “They are a good basketball team who do a lot of different things really well. We played pretty well defensively in spells, but at times it was a little bit ugly.”
Another big blow for the team is that their top two scorers were held to just three and nine points in the contest as the virus of good looks that didn’t translate into points attached itself to Landon Engle and Zach Purviance. 
“Landon went 1-18 and Zach was 4-14 so when they go five for 32 that’s the story, because the name of the game is to put the ball through the hoop,” Von Eye pointed out. “They were taking good shots that, on any other day, would find the mark, but it just didn’t happen on Thursday.”
Unfortunately, the Dogies’ shooting drought hit at the most inopportune time of the season. After becoming a pretty accurate shooting squad in the latter third of the year, in the last three games the team has struggled to score.
The Bison, however, did not suffer an inability to put points on the board. They established a 30-point lead over Newcastle with 2:50 to play in the second quarter and hit the 40 point, mercy rule mark less than three minutes into the third. When all was said and done, the Bison ended the Dogies’ season.
Purviance led the team with nine points, Tate Engle followed with six, Landon Engle and Avery Chick each added three points while Gavin Gray and Hogan Tystad contributed two points apiece. 
The Dogies are graduating four seniors in Purviance, Landon Engle, Christian Santos and Gray. “We’ve had them for all four seasons, and it’s something you never get used to even after 17 years of coaching,” Von Eye said. “They all had some really impactful contributions to our program whether it was on the floor or off. They are good kids who did some great things for us, and you could never question the effort they gave us. They will each go on to be successful in whatever avenue they choose because their work ethic is unquestionable.”
Von Eye reminded the returning players that one never knows when something might happen that takes opportunities away, so one must not take anything for granted. 
“When you have moments that can make you better, you need to take advantage of those and use them to the best of your ability,” he said. “We’ve had two rough seasons in a row following two back-to-back state tournament appearances, and that wears on everyone. No one is satisfied, but we need to realize that all entities need to work together to change the trajectory.”
Off-season is just as important as basketball season, he noted.
“Whether we like it or not, the name of the game is to work in the off-season to improve your skills, and being a multi-sport athlete is also an advantage. Strength and athleticism are required to compete anymore and in-season work just isn’t enough,” Von Eye determined. “We want multiple sport athletes, and we support our kids in other sports and our goal is to work together with all the different sports to build up and encourage our kids during and out of the season. I look at the Buffalo model that dedicates one day a week to each sport for off-season development, and at this level, there is no reason why a kid should have to choose between sports.”
Von Eye is looking forward to having off-season training opportunities that were lost last year due to the COVID-19 shutdown in order to get his team on track to compete in the 21-22 winter season.