Dogies struggle against the Broncs

The Dogies played host to the Broncs of Burns Friday in a make-up cross-conference match-up postponed from the first weekend of the year. 
The Broncs came into the Dome as the second seed from the southeast quadrant, with a roster full of shooters giving Newcastle all they could handle from the perimeter. On the backs of four players who combined for 10 threes on the night, Burns was able to take the 58-42 win over the Dogies.
“I’m looking forward to seeing them again, and I think everyone is,” junior guard Tate Engle determined. “We out-scored them in two quarters, and if it hadn’t been for the second quarter, it could have been a whole different outcome.”
The first quarter went back and forth with two ties and four lead changes, and ended with the Dogies up 12-10 over the Broncs. In the second quarter, however, the wheels fell off the bus as Burns heated up on offense, and the Dogies seemed to tank on both ends of the court. The combination resulted with the Broncs going on a 20-4 run to go into the locker room up 30-16. 
“Whenever you allow a 17-0 run and then go down 20-4 at the end of a quarter it leaves you in a bad situation,” said head coach Allen Von Eye. “What makes it worse is that we battled to an even box score in the other three quarters, but had dug ourselves too big of a hole.”
“I think we might have lost focus in the second quarter, and we started to play their game instead of ours,” Engle added. “We didn’t get nearly as many transition looks as we usually do and we didn’t get out and run. They started to break our press apart so we pulled out of it, and then just weren’t really there mentally for a while.”
A half-time chat and a defensive adjustment on the part of the Dogies resulted in Newcastle coming out with a solid third quarter where they out-scored the Broncs 15-14. 
Von Eye assigned Engle, the Dogies’ “enforcer,” to face-guard Jackson Kirkbride, who had scored 16 in the first half including going on a 4-4 run from beyond the arc. Engle helped to hold Kirkbride to only 6 points in the final two frames of play, and allowed no more open 3-point looks. Unfortunately, the squad had more than one shooter and Spencer Smith then took over the reins and drained 4 from 3-point land for Burns.
“I tend to play decent defense, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m the enforcer,” Engle laughed. “I like being on their shooter or their go-to-the-rim guy. Aidan [Chick] and Avery [Chick] are our point guard defenders because they are really quick and do a good job of that.” 
The Dogies ramped up defense overall in the second half, and though they ultimately trailed by 21 in the second half they were able to cut that lead to 9 in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Burns was able to extend their lead again by the time the final buzzer sounded.
“We did a better job of attacking the zone, we just weren’t able to finish,” Von Eye explained. “That has been our Achilles heel this year, but we had a couple of times when we were able to attack the zone for good looks.” 
Then there were the moments that hit the fans in the feelz. As it was senior night, Neil Whitney got to start and got some time at the end of the game as well. In his time on the court, he grabbed a nice rebound and made a nice move to the basket for a bucket. 
“Coach told me on Wednesday that I was going to start, and I didn’t actually start to get nervous until pre-game on Thursday. The one thing I told myself was to act like I’ve started a varsity game before, but it was crazy,” Whitney said, grinning. “It was just a really fun experience.”
The crowd went crazy when Whitney scored a bucket in the fourth quarter. The student section was chanting “Curly Dub,” one of Whitney’s nicknames, as the senior got the ball on the block and finished for 2.
“When I scored and I was running back, I was trying pretty hard to make sure I wasn’t smiling too much,” Whitney admitted. “But when everyone was cheering, it was so loud it was almost piercing. It was a lot of fun.” 
“It was a neat opportunity for him and he did some nice things while he was on the court,”
Von Eye said. “It was great to
be able to give him those opportunities because he’s been with us for four years. This entire group of seniors has stuck with us and have been together for a lot of years.”
Aidan Chick finished the night as the Dogies’ leading scorer with 14 points, Hayden Overman was next with 8, Slade Roberson had 7 and Quint Perino had 6. Avery Chick added 3 points, while Hogan Tystad and Whitney each chipped in 2. 
This week the Dogies once again have only one contest to focus on, as they are scheduled for a re-match against the Thermopolis Bobcats on Friday. When the Hot Springs County team came to Newcastle, the Dogies were able to take the quadrant win, 58-55, in overtime. With regionals looming around the corner, the Dogies need to repeat as victors in order to secure the No. 3 seed out of the Northeast Quadrant. 
“After the tight ball game where we got the better of them here, they are going to want another shot at us,” Von Eye warned. “It’s a long bus ride there, and they play really well on their college-sized floor and they can shoot the heck out of the ball in their own gym. Any time it comes down to the second game you know each other better, but there’s always a chance for a team to make a change that you’re not expecting so we need to be ready for that.” 
Games in Thermopolis are scheduled for 2, 3:30 and 5 p.m.