Dogies lose a close one in conference opener

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies came out of Christmas break with a 1-3 record and took on the 3A East Conference Torrington Trailblazers in the Dome Friday and traveled to Gering, Neb., on Saturday to face off against the Bulldogs.
Over the course of the two contests, head coach Allen Von Eye’s inexperienced squad made strides in the right direction, however were unable to add a win to their record. Defensively, Von Eye couldn’t have been more pleased with his team’s performance in both games, but offensive success against Gering was a challenge.
“Our defense was spectacular against Torrington and Gering,” he exclaimed. “Help  side was on point and our rotations were about as good as I’ve seen in a long time. We went to the rack pretty well for most of the game against Torrington, but we struggled to get there against Gering.”
The first quarter of play in the Dome on Friday looked a little grim for the Dogies as they struggled to find the bottom of the net. Despite getting good looks at the basket, the squad was unable to convert their offensive opportunities and found themselves in a 4-18 deficit early in the contest.
“We knew going in exactly what Torrington was going to be about with the exception of the fact that I thought we’d see a lot of junk defense and much more zone than we did on Friday,” Von Eye began. “We did what they wanted us to do in the first quarter. We settled for perimeter shots and we turned it over a lot more than we should have in unforced situations.”
At the quarter break, Von Eye made adjustments to his game plan and from there the Dogies outplayed the Trailblazers. However when they gave Torrington a 14 point lead in the first eight minutes of play, it made it tough to come back.
Despite the hole, the Dogies did fight back and pulled within one late in the fourth quarter. However, untimely turnovers and missed free throws would be the deciding factor in the squad’s 55-58 loss.
“Free throws have all of a sudden become an issue in the last six quarters we’ve played. We’ve never shot as poorly from the line in six quarters as we have now,” Von Eye frowned. “However, I was pleased to see that starting in the second quarter, we really started to figure some things out which we’ve been stressing. We started going to the rack hard and we did much better taking care of the ball given we only had 13 turnovers.”
Dylon Tidyman was coming off a 38-point performance in the Dogies’ last contest of 2019 against Lead, and he started off the new decade with another impressive offensive effort draining 35 points against Torrington. Zach Purviance added 10 points to the team’s total while Peyton Tystad had four, Slade Roberson had three, Bradyn Frye contributed two and Landon Engle rounded out the scoring with one point. 
On Saturday, the Gering Bulldogs had a definite height advantage over Newcastle, and executed a very effective 2-3 zone defense against the Dogies which frustrated their offensive effort. Von Eye noted that though the Nebraska team is on their third coach in as many years, the Bulldogs have great potential which they showed in the game.
“Our defensive game was fantastic, and the kids came out ready to play,” Von Eye began. “Offensively we struggled. They spread their 2-3 zone at us which opened up a lot of gaps, and our offense is all about attacking the gaps. However, we neglected the spots that we traditionally hit against a 2-3 zone, so we just weren’t open or we were late with our passes, so turnovers were atrocious.”
The contest was uncharacteristically low scoring and saw the Dogies down 6-18 at the halftime mark. 
“Though the score was low, it was still a manageable situation for us, especially with the defense we were playing,” Von Eye stated. “We took their best player out of the game and held him to only two points, but then we had to try to climb out of the hole we had dug for ourselves.”
Though the Dogies’ defensive game remained strong for the final two quarters, they continued to struggle putting the ball in the hoop so dropped the contest 21-44.
Tidyman was only able to wrangle 12 points on the night, Purviance had five, Cooper Deveraux added two while Frye and Engle each added one point each.
The Dogies will face off against the Rawlins Outlaws this Saturday in the Dome, and according to Von Eye, will see a team that is long and will play a game that encompasses some of what they saw against Torrington and Gering last weekend.