The hits keep coming for Ladies

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies have been taking their lumps in this rebuilding year, but last weekend was particularly painful as they ran head-on into the juggernaut that is the Lady Bearcats in Douglas on Friday, and followed that up by being attacked by the Wheatland Lady Bulldogs in the Dome on Saturday.
“It was a rough weekend us,” sighed head coach Chad Ostenson. “We knew what we were getting into when we went to Douglas, because they are a very talented team. But on Saturday, it was a little disappointing because that was the first time that I thought we got out-hustled.”  
The Lady Bearcats are ranked number one in the state for a reason. They have all the pieces that make them extraordinarily talented and those pieces fit together perfectly on Friday night. 
“They dominated us on the boards, they played great defense, and they have several offensive threats as well,” Ostenson admitted. “And when we shoot 1-8 from three and 2-15 from two, that’s not a lot of shots up in the first place and that makes it tough. Then you add 34 turnovers and things don’t work out well.”
Ostenson pointed out that rebounding has been a problem for his team against opponents they match up with, so against a team like Douglas with whom they don’t match up well, that factor contributed to the Lady Dogies’ struggle. Newcastle ended the night with only three offensive and eight defensive boards compared to 18 offensive and 20 defensive rebounds by Douglas.
The Lady Dogies went into the contest knowing the Lady Cats would come out fast, but the speed with which the game started was overwhelming. With only three seconds off the clock, Douglas had their first three and they extended the lead to 5-0 within 10 seconds. 
“They came out in a full court press for the first half of the first quarter, and then dropped back into a half court trap for the remainder of the quarter,” Ostenson explained. “They shot the ball well, and as the game got going, unfortunately our effort wasn’t where it needed to be. We just didn’t have any answers for them. They have all the pieces of a good team, and there just wasn’t anything we could do about that.”
The Bearcats ended the first quarter with a 28-0 lead over the Lady Dogies and the final tally of the contest was 80-8 in favor of Douglas.
The Lady Dogies had to put the loss behind them quickly as they looked to Saturday’s home contest against Wheatland. Though not a quadrant game, this was one that Ostenson felt like his team had a chance to win if they could execute and play hard.
Unfortunately, the Lady Dogies struggled again to put points on the board and Ostenson was disappointed to see an uncharacteristic lack of effort on the part of his team.
“We did some good things on offense to start the game, but when you can’t put the ball through the hoop, it’s going to be difficult to win,” he sighed. “That was a tough loss to take because we got out-rebounded and out hustled, and for the first time this season I thought we got out-worked, which is one aspect of the game that we have absolute control over.”
Newcastle trailed Wheatland at the end of each quarter, but it was the third quarter where the Lady Bulldogs drove the nail into the coffin.  
“We came out of the locker room flat, and it was the third quarter that really killed us,” Ostenson began. “We were down a little bit, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t come back from. However, when you only score one point in a quarter of play, you know you’re in trouble.”
Though Newcastle was able to score 10 points in the
fourth quarter, the hole was
too deep and Wheatland cruised to a 51-23 victory over the home team.
With the two contests in the books, Ostenson and his team are looking forward to the coming weekend of play. On Friday, the Lady Dogies will host the Lady Blazers of Torrington in a rematch from early in the season when the Goshen County squad got the better of Newcastle, and on Saturday the team will travel to Big Horn to take on the 2A Lady Rams.