Dogies close out season
Sonja Karpe
NLJ Sports Reporter
The Dogies ended their regular season on an upswing despite the score of their final two contests last weekend. Unexpected shooting woes plagued the team, but defensively they put together two nearly complete games. Unfortunately, they dropped their rematch with Douglas by a score of 32-75, and to Wheatland, 47-66.
“After shooting pretty well in the last few games, we couldn’t buy a bucket either night,” sighed head coach Allen Von Eye. “But other than a couple of costly let-downs against Douglas, the kids did a really nice job defensively.”
The Dogies didn’t hit a single shot from the perimeter on Friday and only two from beyond the arc on Saturday, and the team’s leading scorer, Zach Purviance, ended Friday with only five points and scored 10, all from the free-throw line, on Saturday.
The Dogies headed to Douglas on Friday fully aware that the Bearcats are currently playing some pretty solid basketball, but they came out of the gate strong to end the first quarter down only 10-16.
“We came out with some really good energy and I was really proud of that. We were on the attack mode and it was a good first quarter,” Von Eye began. “I thought we did some really nice things defensively, which we had stressed all week long, and we did a good job of taking away their looks early.”
The start of the second quarter looked good as well, but ended on a sour note when the Dogies gave up a huge run in which the Bearcats scored 12 or 13 points to go into the locker room up 39-20.
“We gave up two threes and two and-ones within about 40 seconds and that just crushed us,” Von Eye admitted. “After playing really good defense, we just had a couple of mental let-downs, which kills you.”
Offensive rebounds were also debilitating for the Dogies. After the team would force Douglas into some difficult shots, the ‘Cats would get second or third chances which they would capitalize on to score.
In the third quarter, Newcastle battled hard and it was a slugfest that ended with the Bearcats barely outscoring the Dogies 8-6, but then at the start of the fourth Douglas went on an 11-0 run to kill any momentum established by Von Eye’s crew.
“We were feeling pretty good after the third, and we were doing better on the boards, but then we gave up some and-ones in the fourth and they ran away with it,” Von Eye nodded. “But we played 32 minutes and got after them and battled them throwing everything we could at them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get shots to fall.”
Landon Engle led the Dogies in scoring with eight points, and Tate Engle was close behind with seven. Hayden Overman added six, Purviance five, while Aidan Chick, Avery Chick and Gavin Gray each chipped in two points.
The Dogies continued to struggle on the offensive end of the court in their final regular season contest against Wheatland in Newcastle on Saturday. The first time the two squads met in Wheatland, the Bulldogs came away with a 73-37 win.
“They are kind of an enigma,” Von Eye mused. “They have the Pruitt kid, who is one of the better players in 3A, and Ned Haggeman, their big inside, who does a really nice job, but they run hot and cold.”
Von Eye’s game plan was to slow the game down and to go blow for blow, which they were able to accomplish. They also enjoyed the return of Landon Engle who provided an offensive spark for his team.
“We did a much better job against Ned, and Pruitt got into foul trouble early and was off the court for much of the game so that was good,” Von Eye stated. “We battled hard and were down only 13 at half and some of those points were a result of some miscues by us late in the second quarter.”
The Dogies were successful in getting Pruitt off the floor with four fouls early in the third quarter, but again just couldn’t buy a bucket despite getting many good looks at the hoop.
“I was so incredibly proud of the kids because we did everything I said we needed to do going into it. I counted and we got 45 paint touches after getting only six against Douglas in the second half on Friday,” proclaimed Von Eye. “We kept them off the offensive glass much better giving up only 10 total, and we got to the rim, but just couldn’t get them to fall.”
In addition, the Dogies took much better care of the basketball than they had been given they only turned it over 13 times total and only three in the second half.
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs hit some big, timely threes in the fourth quarter, and each time the Dogies would go on a run, they’d ice them by hitting one of those big shots.
“It was one of those crazy games, where every 50-50 ball seemed to bounce right into their hands,” Von Eye frowned. “We had kids hustling and doing what they needed to do, but the darn thing just didn’t go in our direction. It’s a whole different ball game if we could get the ball to fall.”
Von Eye is determined to have his team put all the pieces together this Thursday as they travel to Douglas as the No. 4 seed to take on the No. 1-seeded Bison of Buffalo in the high stakes, one-and-done format of the Northeast Quadrant Regional Tournament.
“We just need to have a game where it is a complete game, so hopefully we will be able to do that on Thursday,” Von Eye nodded. “They are solid and they got us by 28 both times, but if not for the 36 extra shots they got off turnovers and second chances, it was a much closer ball game. We have to make sure we tighten up our defense and we will approach it for what it is. It’s a do or die situation, and if we play well we extend our season, if not, we don’t.”
The Dogies will make their bid for the state tournament at 1 on Thursday. With a win, they will play again at seven for first or second place, then will play again on Saturday at Cheyenne Central for seeding for the state tournament. Those contests will take place at 2 for third/fourth place and 6 for first/second place.