Dogie men win with buzzer-beater shot

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
The Dogies’ home contest against the 2A Big Horn Rams on Friday may have started off a little slow, but the last four minutes were worth the price of admission as the team rallied from an 11-point deficit to pull out the 31-29 win with a final second bucket from Slade Roberson.
“We didn’t come out with the same energy that we usually do, and we were just blah for three quarters,” admitted head coach Allen Von Eye. “When they extended their lead, it was pretty daunting that late in the game, so we knew we needed to get something going pretty quickly.”
The game up until that point had been a low-scoring affair with the Rams leading at the first three quarter breaks, 12-4, 14-10, and 24-18. Though the Dogie defense was causing Big Horn scoring problems, they ate a lot of time off the clock on each of their possessions. Meanwhile, Newcastle was relatively stagnant on the offensive end of the court which the Rams used to begin to pull away in the final frame of play.
“The whole game it felt like we were the better team, but we just weren’t playing our game,” said senior Slade Roberson. “Finally we just got to the point where we decided that wasn’t the way it was supposed to be and we kind of flipped the switch.”
Halfway through the fourth, Von Eye called a time out and when the team returned to the court, fans could see very quickly that the switch had indeed been flipped. They turned up the defensive pressure and converted forced turnovers into points very quickly. 
Aidan Chick got a steal and went down the court for 2 points. Then Aidan and Avery Chick forced another turnover which Aidan again turned into another bucket and one more steal by the Dogies ended in Aidan sinking one from beyond the arc. 
In the course of 45 seconds, Chick and his team had turned a four possession game into a two possession game with a little over three minutes to play.
“I think we just got angry because we were getting smacked around by a 2A team,” Aidan proclaimed. “I think we had six forced turnovers in a little over two minutes, and I was feeling it so I kept shooting.”
The Dogies managed to hold the Rams scoreless and capitalized on offensive trips to
tie the game at 29s. Then, with 14 seconds remaining, Newcastle had the ball with the opportunity for a last shot to take the win.
“I’m usually a firm believer in not taking a time-out in situations like that. We practice these scenarios and so most of the time I just trust the kids to know what to do,” Von Eye said. “But we had struggled all night with sets, and really hadn’t executed much as evidenced by our 29 points, so I wanted to take a minute to talk things over.” 
The Dogies came out of that time-out with an out-of-bounds play designed to give Aidan Chick the option of either taking a shot from beyond the arc, or driving to the basket. As the play got underway, circumstances set themselves up for another option.
“I had a wide open 3 and I thought about taking it, but then two guys came out on me and left Slade all alone under the basket so I just dumped it in to him and he finished,” Aidan said. “It was so loud in there you couldn’t even hear the buzzer go off. It was great!”
“Aidan was open for the 3, but then the defenders closed out on him. He was super patient to wait for the high percentage shot to open up, so it was a very unselfish play,” Roberson added. “I didn’t realize there was as little time left as there was, and I’m glad I didn’t or I might have missed. I hit it and the buzzer went off, so that was pretty cool.”
Roberson ended the night as the Dogies’ leading scorer with 9 points, and Aidan Chick was right behind with 8. Hayden Overman, Hogan Tystad and Tate Engle each put in 4 while Avery Chick rounded out the scoring with 2 points. 
On Saturday, the No. 3-ranked Rawlins Outlaws came to town, and the Dogies came out with a great deal more energy and focus than they had the night before against Big Horn. Unfortunately, those pesky third quarter blues struck again, which ultimately resulted in a 61-46 loss on the night.
“We did exactly what we wanted to do by attacking inside and did some nice things early in the game, and we played pretty great defense during that time as well,” Von Eye decided. “It was a tight, even ball game for the most part early. What really killed us is that we had some mental lapses here and there which led to some easy buckets for them, and when you make a bad decision against a good team like that, they will make you pay.” 
The Outlaws led by 6 at the end of the first quarter and extended their lead to 9 by the half-time break, however, Von Eye and his crew were still feeling good about how they had played up until that point. 
“Rawlins is a really high caliber team, and they’re No. 3 for a reason,” Roberson said. “Their defense is stellar, and they just make it really hard on you the whole game.”
Though the team reiterated the fact that every possession was important when coming out of the locker room, the Dogies couldn’t seem to get things together.
“The third quarter blues or our Jekyll and Hyde personality hurt us again,” admitted Avery Chick. “Things go a little south and then we compound it, but we’ve got to get over that.”
The Outlaws used the lull to pull out to a 22-point lead before the Dogies began to rally once again in the fourth quarter. Like the night before, the defense ramped up and Newcastle forced some
turnovers which they turned into points. 
Aidan Chick repeated his performance from the previous night by hitting three consecutive shots from beyond the arc to help cut the lead to 14, but against a team with Rawlins’ talent, the hole was just too deep to crawl out of by the time the final buzzer sounded.
“You know we hate to lose, but there were good things to take from it,” Von Eye said. “The score doesn’t indicate how close of a ball game it was throughout most of the contest.” 
Aidan Chick and Engle led the team with 13 points apiece. Tystad had 8, Roberson 6, and Overman and Quint Perino each contributed 3 points to round out the scoring.  
The Dogies have just one game this week as they host Burns beginning at 6 on Friday, which is also senior night for the Dogies.