Dogies fall again to Bison

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
For the second time this season the Dogies were minus a key player when they took on the number one-ranked Buffalo Bison last Saturday, and for the second time, the Johnson County team got the better of head coach Allen Von Eye’s crew, 68-31.
“We started off pretty solid, but it was quite possibly the sloppiest game I’ve ever seen played in my life, and that’s on both sides,” Von Eye began. “There was a total of 64 turnovers between two pretty good basketball teams, they were coming off a big loss against Douglas the night before, and we were coming off a cancelled game without Cade [Ostenson].
The Dogies started the contest strong, despite being without their top scorer, jumping out to a quick 9-4 lead. However, the squad began giving up offensive boards allowing the Bison second and third opportunities which they took advantage of to close the gap.
Buffalo then rotated in their second crew with about two minutes to play in the first quarter, and the Dogies allowed them to hit two perimeter shots — one deep two to tie it and one three-pointer at the buzzer to give them the 11-9 point lead.
“That three really seemed to take a little wind out of our sails,” sighed Von Eye. “The confidence we had going into the game, and that we showed during the first part of the quarter just kind of went away.”
It was more than just the buzzer beater that changed momentum for the Dogies, however. While the Bison did not put on much pressure to begin the contest, they ramped it up for the remaining three quarters and with 10 players being rotated throughout the game, they enjoyed much fresher legs than Newcastle.
“They didn’t pressure us at first, but then when they started to, we didn’t put ourselves in very good positions. We’ve handled pressure pretty nicely so far this year, but on Saturday it bothered us more than it should,” Von Eye admitted. “In the second quarter we went on a stretch of too many turnovers that led to buckets by them and allowed them to stretch their lead to 10-12 points instead of three.”
In addition, Dylon Tidyman who is the team’s second leading scorer, found himself in foul trouble early so spent much of the game on the sidelines.
“Dylon only played about 14 of the 32 minutes of the game,” Von Eye explained. “He got his second semi-early in the first quarter and really early on in the second quarter he got his third, so that didn’t help things.”
The Dogies went into the locker room with a 14 point deficit, and though they came out in the third with a well executed offensive set, failure to score compounded the Dogies’ struggles on the night and the Bison went on to a 13-0 point run in those eight minutes of play.
“We just never could get ourselves back into the game, and they got more aggressive defensively,” Von Eye stated. “They are a good team, it’s at their house, and they did what they needed to do.”
The Dogies finished the game with 38 turnovers which eclipses by far any numbers they’ve put up this season. The Bison also struggled to handle the ball and ended with 26 turnovers on the night. Unfortunately, Newcastle gave up 20 offensive rebounds while nabbing only one of their own.
Those kinds of numbers compounded by missing a leader in Ostenson, and having Tidyman sitting much of the contest with foul trouble, added up to bad news for the Dogies.
“We played very well defensively, holding them to well under 40 percent from the floor for three quarters, but we did not box out at all, so that put us at a huge disadvantage,” Von Eye declared. “Giving up 20 offensive boards and committing 38 turnovers should not end up in a close game, and it didn’t.”
The Dogies have now lost two in a row, and Von Eye admitted that is not what he or his team envisioned at this point in the season.
“It’s unfortunate, and you hate to have those kinds of games down the stretch, however looking at the bright side, it gives us as players and coaches a chance to look at some things and figure those things out in these last games before Regionals,” he nodded. “We as coaches have seen some things in practice that concerned us and that we tried to address, but sometimes it takes a tail-whooping for the guys to see what we were seeing, and make it set in.”
Hopefully, the Dogies have learned the lessons needed from the losses as they head into what is a big weekend of quadrant and conference play to end the regular season.
Nothing is settled regarding seeding for the fast-approaching Regional Tournament, and though the Dogies set themselves up early to nab the second seed for the Northeast Quadrant, in order to secure the spot they need wins over Thermopolis on Thursday and Douglas on Friday.
The Thermopolis game was postponed last Friday, but with Ostenson out for last weekend, the weather delay may have been a blessing in disguise given the high stakes attached to the contest.
“I have to be honest and tell you that I was very concerned about the Thermop game last week,” Von Eye admitted. “And I’m still worried because they are playing very well right now. They have two of their kids back, so they are not going to be a cakewalk.”
Hopefully, Ostenson will be back and ready to go as the Dogies finish out the regular season with the two quadrant games, and then finish it off with a road game against Wheatland on Saturday.
“The first two games this week hold a ton of purpose, and Wheatland is going to be tough because they have been in some slugfests lately and have come out on top,” Von Eye nodded. “There’s a reason we play these games, and 3A is still wide open. We have to bring our best from here on out.”