Heading to the finals

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
It’s hard to beat a team three times, and head coach Chad Ostenson knew that heading into Thursday’s 3A Northeast Quadrant state play-in game. This year’s regional tournament was a one-and-done, do-or-die, high stakes format where if you won your first game, you qualified for the state tournament, but if you lost, your season was done.
As such, there was a whole season riding on the Lady Dogies’ contest against the Lady Bison in Buffalo Thursday. Newcastle had defeated Buffalo twice in
the regular season, and while the first win came pretty easily when they met at home in the Dogie Dome, the second time they played in Johnson County, it was a much closer contest.
“Hopefully the girls didn’t know it, but when I knew our draw was Buffalo at Buffalo, I was pretty nervous,” Ostenson admitted. “They remind me a lot of our team last year. They started slow, but have been improving throughout the season and peaking when they needed to peak. Their team built all year and they played us close at their place recently, so I knew that would give them confidence to play us again. I knew going in it was going to be all we wanted and more.”
The Lady Dogies started the contest out fast and had firm control of the game throughout the first two quarters of play, leading 13-8 at the end of one and 26-15 at the half. 
“We knew the run was coming and we knew that Buffalo wouldn’t roll over,” Ostenson said. “They started to crawl out of the hole when we returned to play in the second half, and while we had several opportunities to put it away in regulation, we didn’t shoot well from the line.”
The Lady Bison out-scored Newcastle 9-7 in the third and 19-10 in the fourth quarter to tie things up at 43 at the end of regulation. An additional four minutes also finished with the teams tied, so they went to a second overtime. 
The final eight minutes were a slug fest with each landing blows, but neither were willing to concede. The Lady Dogies had the clock on their side and were able to land the deciding punch giving them the 64-61 victory and securing their spot in the 3A State Tournament.
“The game was what I thought it was going to be. They’re good and I knew it was going to be a battle,” Ostenson nodded. “I’m so proud of all our kids for stepping up and doing what they needed to do to get it done.”
Jaylen Ostenson led her team with a double double, scoring 27 points and pulling down 11 boards. Shelby Tidyman poured in 19 points of her own while Mercedes Voelker had eight, Hunter McFarland six and Tiernan Stanton added four points and also pulled down 11 rebounds.
The regional tournament was so much different this season with the first game being as high of stakes as it gets, and once it was done and the state tournament berth secured, the Lady Dogies turned their attention to the Northeast Quadrant seeding contest against Douglas.
“The girls had a sandwich and I had three girls with
their ankles in an ice bath, and we were just happy to be playing again,” Ostenson chuckled. “We were tired but we got to try some things out against Douglas and got some new ideas. It was a valuable game because it was another shot to try to figure out how to get a win.”
Newcastle dropped that contest 38-78, however the Bearcats didn’t succeed in slapping the mercy rule on Ostenson’s crew and everyone got the chance to get on the court and play in a regional game. In addition, Stanton was able to put a feather in her cap as she successfully blocked 6-foot-5-inch Allyson Fertig on one of her shots.
Ostenson finished with another double double, scoring 13 points and nabbing 10 rebounds. Two others were in double figures as Tidyman put in 11 points while McFarland added 10 of her own. Shawnee Miles got in on the action with five points, Stanton added four, MacKenzie Conzelman put in three while Jayde Harrington contributed two points.
As the No. 2 seed from the Northeast, the Lady Dogies headed to Cheyenne Central on Saturday to take on the Wheatland Lady Bulldogs
who earned the No. 1 seed from the Southeast. In the two meetings during the regular season, Newcastle defeated Wheatland the first time by one in overtime and the second time by 11. 
In Saturday’s state seeding contest, the Lady Dogies dominated, leading the Lady Bulldogs 10-2 at the end of one, 18-8 at the half, 40-16 at the end of the third and 45-25 at the final buzzer.
In the third quarter, the Lady Dogies put on a three-point shooting clinic for everyone in the gym as they hit five consecutive from beyond the arc, and sandwiched a third between a bunny and a couple of free-throws. 
That kind of shooting streak from your opponent is demoralizing in and of itself, however Newcastle made it worse for Wheatland as those six threes came from five different Lady Dogies. Voelker, McFarland, Conzelman and Ostenson hit one apiece while Tidyman sank two from beyond the arc. 
“It really was a fun game and it’s super fun when the girls get into a rhythm like that,” Ostenson said. “Not only did we shoot pretty well, finishing with 10 threes overall, defensively we played really well.”
With the win the Lady Dogies earned the No. 3 seed from the east so will face off against Lander in the opening matchup at the state tournament on Wednesday morning. 
“Lander is solid but we match up a little better with them than with Lyman. They are athletic, they’ll be pressuring us and they have one really good shooter so we will need to bring our defense with us this weekend,” Ostenson determined. “Playing Douglas has done us a world of good when it comes to playing against pressure. Hopefully, they have toughened us up a little bit and enough to get to see them in the semifinals on Wednesday evening.”
Newcastle will play this first game at Casper College which may be beneficial over playing in the wide open spaces of the Wyoming Ford Center (formerly the Casper Event Center), and only Newcastle and Lyman got a chance to play in the state tournament last year so hopefully that will play to their advantage as well.
“You have to beat the best team in the state to win a state title so hopefully we’ll do that this weekend,” Ostenson said. “Teams at the state tournament are there for a reason. We have to take care of business if we want to bring home some hardware.” 
The quarterfinal game will tip off at 10:30 on Wednesday morning. With a win, the Lady Dogies will play at 6 p.m. at the Wyoming Ford Center, or with a loss they will play at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning at Casper College.