Early season growing pains

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
A young and inexperienced Lady Dogie Basketball team tipped off their 2018-2019 season against the Lady Wildcats of Custer last Friday in the Dogie Dome. 
First year head coach Chad Ostenson anticipated that his team would be feeling some growing pains to start their season, and his prediction turned out to be true as the squad struggled to find their rhythm on offense, which gave the South Dakota team the 41-27 advantage on the night.
“It took us awhile to get going, but that can be expected for the first game of the season,” Ostenson began. “The defense is usually ahead of the offense at this time of year, and I thought defensively we did a lot of pretty good things for most of the game.”
The two teams ended the first quarter in a tight ball game, with Custer holding only a two-point lead. The second quarter continued to be a back and forth battle until the final 40 seconds of play, when Custer went on an eight-point run to take a 21-13 lead into the locker room.
“Looking back on the situation, I should have called a time out even though you hate to burn one so close to half-time,” Ostenson admitted. “That little run was what they needed to push them over the top, and make us try and play catch-up for the remainder of the game.”
Compounding the issue for the Lady Dogies was that they were also cold offensively, with the shooters the team normally relies upon struggling to find the bottom of the net. Sophomore Mercedes Voelker, who is generally pretty solid from the perimeter, had some great open looks but was just a little off the mark. 
“This was her first varsity start so I’m sure there were some nerves at work there, but I was really happy with the way she handled the ball,” Ostenson nodded. “She brought the ball up against the press a few times, and did a great job. In the past, it was sometimes iffy how she would handle that situation, but not on Friday.”
When the teams came out of the locker room, it appeared as though Newcastle had settled some of their first game jitters as they played the Lady Wildcats pretty evenly throughout. Unfortunately, they were unable to cut into the eight-point deficit they held as second half action got under way.
Custer went on to outscore the Lady Dogies 10-7 in the final frame of play to take the win. Despite the loss, Ostenson stated that he was pretty pleased to see how his team handled themselves overall.
“There were a lot of positives with what we did on Friday,” he declared. “They had 17-18 turnovers, so I thought we did some good things on defense. Offensively, we have some work to do, which is a good thing this early in the season. Otherwise we wouldn’t have anything left to do.”
Ostenson noted that only Makenzie Wagoner and Lexus Voelker have any real varsity experience, and that it will take some time for the others who are getting introduced to the speed of the game to adjust. However, he feels confident they will get there sooner rather than later.
In fact, senior Kaylee Sweet, who saw some minutes last season but not a great deal, stepped up to be the leading scorer on the night with eight points. She also pulled down four rebounds and added an assist to her stat line, all while being tasked with guarding the Wildcats’ 6’2” post.
Lexus Voelker finished the night with seven points, five rebounds and one steal, and she was followed by her sister Mercedes, who contributed three points, three rebounds and one assist. Wagoner, Grace Coy, Lauren Steveson, and Claire Beastrom each added two points, while freshman Shawnee Miles rounded out the scoring for the team with a free throw.
With the first game of the season under their belts, the Lady Dogies turn their sights to the Stateline Shootout coming up this Thursday through Saturday. This annual tournament will close out the pre-Christmas break competition, and will be an opportunity for the team to work on improving their level of play.
“We’re working on getting better every game, and with the three contests coming up this weekend we should see some improvement by the end of the weekend,” Ostenson predicted. “We will see some different defenses, which will help us out when we start conference play after the break.”