Dogies end season

The Dogies ended what they knew from the beginning would be a challenging season last Friday at the 3A East Regional Tournament in Torrington with losses to the number one ranked Douglas Bearcats in the quarterfinals on Thursday, and to Glenrock in the consolation quarterfinals on Friday.
Douglas, who went on to be the Regional Champs, was a tough draw for the Dogies right out of the gate, and the pressure the Bearcats applied combined with Newcastle struggling to get anything going offensively resulted in the Dogies being unable to get a shot off for the first several minutes of the game.
“Even though we weren’t scoring points, we were still playing pretty decent defense. We were limiting them and forcing some perimeter shots,” head coach Allen Von Eye insisted. “We didn’t necessarily rebound like we should have, but we were forcing them to take the shots that we wanted them to take.”
Eventually, Newcastle was able to get a couple of buckets to get things going, however Douglas had an answer for every point the Dogies scored.
The first quarter ended with the Bearcats leading the Dogies 18-6, but then in the second quarter, Douglas turned up the offensive heat and outscored Newcastle 20-1 to go into the locker room with a 38-7 lead.
“They are a tough team, but like I told the guys at halftime, it doesn’t matter how tough they are, you’ve got to continue playing,” Von Eye stated. “We’ve seen our guys really play hard all season long, regardless of the score which is just what we wanted, but in this opening round, I didn’t see that happen consistently through the whole game.”
The third quarter saw the Dogies continue to struggle offensively as the Bearcats held them scoreless, allowing Douglas to expand their lead to 53-7 which instituted the mercy rule and a running clock for the remainder of the contest. 
Newcastle was able to double their points in the fourth quarter, despite a running clock, to end the game with the 14-64 loss.
Zander White led his team with six points, Quint Perino and Pate Tavegie each scored three, and Thatcher Troftgruben added two to round out the scoring.
“I know that it can get hard to go out there and keep fighting, but we really had wanted to play them hard for four quarters, but that didn’t happen,” Von Eye admitted. “Ending the game that way can make it difficult for kids to reengage for the next game, so we were a little concerned for how things would go the next day.”
Fortunately, the Dogies had no trouble putting the Douglas game behind them as they prepared for their do-or-die contest against Glenrock in the consolation quarterfinals on Friday.
“We knew that we were going to have to play for 32 minutes if we wanted a chance to continue our season,” Von Eye nodded. “I thought we did a good job of being aggressive and being in attack mode right from the start.”
The Herders established a 12-5 lead by the end of the first quarter, however the Dogies outscored them 14-10 in the second to cut that lead to just three points by the end of the first half. 
“They had the advantage to start out, but then we came firing back,” Von Eye nodded. “We changed some things up defensively, and they struggled a little bit because of it.”
Perino - the team’s leader on the court - found himself in foul trouble early so had to sit for quite a bit of the first half, but other players were ready to step up to take his place.
“I thought Wyatt [Cole] played well and was aggressive on offense, and I thought Teddy [Troftgruben] did a great job of penetrating and finding the gaps,” Von Eye stated. “JJ [Lipp] kept some balls alive on the offensive end and got some rebounds on the defensive end, so I thought we did some really good things in the first half.”
Having kept the contest easily within reach in the first half, the Dogies got off to a slow start in the third quarter, which is rather uncharacteristic for the team this season. Meanwhile, the Herders were able to capitalize on a couple of their possessions to extend their lead by 11 points before the Dogies began to go blow-for-blow.
Though both teams were dead even, scoring 12 points each in the fourth quarter, Newcastle was unable to make up ground so lost the contest 39-50.
Cole led his team with 18 points, White had five, Lipp and Teddy Troftgruben scored four points each, Tavegie and Thatcher Troftgruben each had three and Perino chipped in two points to his team’s final tally.
“They outplayed us down the stretch, but I was so proud of how our guys came back from the Douglas game and battled hard until the end,” Von Eye declared. “It has been a fun group and it has been great to see how far they have grown from that first week back in December.”
With the loss, the Dogies ended their season. They will lose Perino, White and Yestin Davis from their roster next year due to graduation, but Von Eye is already looking to the off season to prepare his team for a better 2023-24 season.
“The reality is we didn’t do what we needed to do in order to be successful this year in the off season. You can’t have million dollar dreams with a minimum wage work ethic,” Von Eye sighed. “But, this group of kids fought so hard for us, for themselves, and for each other. They practiced hard and got better and they stayed positive despite the adversity. They worked their tails off, so hopefully we see a little more buy-in in the off season so we can get closer to where we want to be next year.”