Dogies nab first win of the season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies have taken their knocks early this year, but they ended the preseason and the decade with a decisive win over the Lead Golddiggers in the final game of the Stateline Shootout on Saturday, Dec. 21.
Dylon Tidyman showed up and dominated the contest leading his team with 38 points, and at the end of the third quarter, had single-handedly outscored the Golddiggers by four points having racked up 35 of his own to their team total of 31.
“Dylon just played so smart, and his body control is amazing,” head coach Allen Von Eye smiled. “He’s able to do so many things on a dime and his reaction is crazy. We’re used to seeing it but it’s still pretty awesome to watch.”
Von Eye was pleased that Tidyman was able to play the whole contest against the Diggers, given he had found himself in foul trouble early in the first two contests of the annual Stateline Shootout Tournament on Thursday and Friday, the 19th and 20th of December. Picking up two fouls in the first quarter had him cooling his heels on the bench, which is not where Von Eye wanted his leading scorer to be.
On Thursday in Sundance, the Dogies began the contest against the Bulldogs pretty solid, running the floor early in the game to take the lead. However, the Bulldogs got back into the game in the second frame of play to go into the locker room with a two point lead over Newcastle.
“We put on the pressure to start, got some good traps and some easy buckets out of transition,” Von Eye began. “Then we relaxed and our defensive transition began to suffer, and in the second half, it got ugly.”
The Dogies came out of the locker room and turned the ball over in the first three possessions and the Bulldogs used those opportunities to score each time. Their two point lead exploded to eight points, and things went from bad to worse from there. 
Sundance held Newcastle to only two points in the third quarter, and went on to defeat the Dogies 62-34. 
“We simply got outworked in the second half,” Von Eye frowned. “They got multiple shots and we didn’t rebound well, our transition and our passing wasn’t good,
we couldn’t get any good looks,
we had no rhythm and they were
able to extend it out on us in the second half.”
Von Eye admitted that his biggest disappointment from the night was that his team just didn’t work very hard, and that is an aspect of the game where the Dogies don’t usually slack.
“On Friday against Belle, our stress was to try to work on some of those pieces where we were weak against Sundance and get back in transition,” Von Eye began. “We didn’t pressure at all because we wanted to work on the basis of our foundations and build from there.”
The Dogies main defensive focus was in the half-court, and Von Eye felt that his team performed well in the first half, despite the Broncs’ athleticism.
“We took away most of their shots but we didn’t rebound well which hurt us,” he stated. “They got a lot of second chance opportunities and that kills us, because we did a great job of forcing them into a contested shot, but then they’d get the rebound and they capitalized on that.” 
Once again, Tidyman found himself in foul trouble early and often so spent a good deal of time on the sidelines. Despite his limited time, he still led his team in scoring with 20 points, after putting up 24 points the night before in Sundance.
Saturday was the Dogies’ final opportunity to pick up a win as they faced off against the Golddiggers of Lead. 
“Our kids came out with a sense of urgency against Lead, and our young kids really stepped up and did well,” Von Eye nodded. “Slade [Roberson] really came out on the attack mode which was so nice to see. He played with a lot of confidence and that was catching for the rest of the kids and Dylon was just in another world.” 
Tidyman got his team on the board with his first attempt of the evening and that was just the beginning. Roberson asserted himself early on offense as well, going strong to the hoop and also seeing the court for some well played assists. 
With their defensive and offensive game on point, the Dogies went into the half up 37-26.
“Defensively, we were on point, with every single shot they took contested,” Von Eye declared. “We really stressed the first four minutes of the third quarter because so far we have come out of the locker room pretty flat. We did much better than we had in the first three games, and we got buckets and extended our lead. Once you have that on your home floor, and you’ve got the crowd behind you, things just seem to go well.”
The Dogies cruized to a 64-44 win over the Broncs, and Tidyman ended the game with 38 points and without picking up a single foul. Roberson finished with nine points, and Peyton Tystad was right behind with eight. 
“It was good to get the first win of the season and go into the break with some positivity,” Von Eye smiled. “Dylon had an amazing game and 38 is the most I’ve ever had a kid score. I told him on Friday that we can’t afford to have him on the bench when we don’t want him there. He took over and played with such maturity. When he’s on the bench, the opponent is free to do whatever they want to, but when he’s on the floor, it opens up other players.”
Von Eye cautioned that his squad still has a long way to go, but was pleased with the positive end to preseason play.
“We controlled what we could, which was awesome, and we showed a great deal of growth over the first two weeks of the season,” he stated. “We still have a lot of work to do, but we made a step in the right direction.” 
The Dogies will open up conference play on Friday, Jan. 10,
as they host the Torrington Trailblazers, and then will travel to Gering, Neb., on Saturday the 11th to take on the Bulldogs.