Dogie men fall victim to the Outlaws

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter 
 
After picking up their first win of the season against Torrington a week and a half ago, the Dogies found themselves up against it after a long, grueling road trip to Rawlins on Saturday and it turned out that the Outlaws were just a little too rough to handle.
The Carbon County team came out of the gate on a mission, and by the time the first quarter had come to a close held a 27-6 point lead which they segued into a 78-33 point overall victory. 
“We knew going in that they would be a challenge for us,” head coach Allen Von Eye admitted. “They are a good team, and though there’s nothing flashy about them, they work hard and they are scrappy and they play a really solid pressure defense.”
Unfortunately the Dogies were also shorthanded as they were down a ball handler with starter Aidan Chick sidelined due to a broken collar bone. 
“It’s tough to be in that situation against a team that is going to pressure you the whole game, but we also have been stressing rebounding and we did not do well in that category,” Von Eye sighed. “If you’re going to try to out-athlete guys on the floor when you can’t, bad things are going to happen. They were far more aggressive and physical than we were across the board.”
The Dogies gave up 17 offensive boards in the first half, while they only got two under their own basket. In essence, Newcastle gave Rawlins 15 more shot opportunities than they gave themselves. 
Unfortunately, those rebounds combined with a 28-18 turnover differential versus pressure allotted Rawlins 36 more shots than Newcastle and those numbers make it tough to win a game. The Outlaws outscored the Dogies in every quarter, and established a 40 point lead in the fourth, instituting the running clock mercy rule to finish out the contest.
“We were very disappointed with that and we talked about it during half time and after the game,” Von Eye admitted. “In a season like this, you can’t become complacent. We got our first win the week before, but we can’t let that affect us.”
Despite the disappointment of the final score, Von Eye stressed that the contest offered his developing squad good opportunities for growth if they recognized them.
“It’s part of the process of growing and figuring out how to get wins, and once you do get a win, to figure out how to maintain that intensity,” he explained. “It shows us where we’re at and gives us the opportunity to grow.”
He went on to admit that his crew does a good job of bouncing back, and are good at looking forward rather than back.
“On the bus ride home we were talking, and certainly the focus of those conversations was where it needed to be,” he nodded. “The guys understand that a single game does not a season make, so we will get back to work this week and focus on us and what we need to do to improve.
We will do some prep for our opponents but for the most part, our practices need to focus on making us better.”
The Dogies have two big quad games coming up against teams that are on opposite ends of the spectrum regarding their play. Thermopolis, who comes to town on Friday, is comparable to Newcastle and are a solid basketball team with a couple kids who have played some significant roles over the last couple of years. 
On Saturday, the Buffalo Bison will come to the Dome boasting several talented athletes with decent size and a bench that has depth. 
“The recipe is out there after the second half of the Worland game and the Rawlins game that we don’t do well against pressure,” Von Eye anticipated. “Thermop will throw a full court press at us that is similar to ours and will probably put on a junk defense against us in the half court. Buffalo will pressure us in multiple ways in both the full and the half court, so we need to focus on making ourselves better and make strides forward in every single practice and game.”
Varsity action tips at 6 p.m. on Friday and at 4 on Saturday, with both games directly following the girls varsity contests.