Ladies clinch No. 2 seed for Regionals

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies went into their final weekend of regular season play with much on the line for Regional seeding. Newcastle, Thermopolis and Buffalo were all tied with a 2-4 quadrant record after Thermopolis squeaked a 60-59 win against Buffalo on Friday evening. 
Also on Friday, Newcastle lost their last quadrant contest against Douglas, which elevated the importance of getting a win over Wheatland on Saturday.
Although the Lady Dogies suffered a 41-72 loss against the Lady Bearcats on Friday, they accomplished some important goals on the night.
“Douglas is just a crazy good team, so we went in with some things we wanted to achieve against them,” head coach Chad Ostenson began. “We wanted to take care of the basketball and we wanted to keep them from mercy-ruling us, and we did both of those things.”
The Bearcats throw a talented 6-foot, 4-inch post player into the paint, and her presence allows her teammate to take some risks on defense resulting in a smothering full court and half court system. The Lady Dogies didn’t retreat from the pressure however, and went hard to the rack executing some crafty finishes to put some points on the board.
“We worked so hard and we weren’t afraid of them. We took it right at them and then kicked it back and got some good looks,” Ostenson declared. “Early, if we can get a couple more of those to fall, you never know. If you can hang around a little more with a team like that, the basket is a lot harder to shoot at when you’re even than when you’re up 30.” 
The Lady Cats came close to establishing the 40-point lead necessary to enact the running clock of the mercy rule, however Newcastle played strategically and managed the clock to keep the ball out of Douglas’ possession. 
“I was so proud of the kids with how they fought so hard the whole time,” Ostenson nodded. “We put a lot of energy into that ball game, and we had some pretty tired girls Friday night.”
The Lady Dogies ended the night with 22 turnovers, just three more than Douglas committed. They also were pretty balanced in scoring across the team. Mercedes Voelker drained three from beyond the arc, and added a bucket on the inside to lead the team with 11 points on the night. Shelby Tidyman was right behind her with 10 points which she earned by driving into the lane against the Bearcat post. Jaylen Ostenson had eight points, Ally Cass finished with seven, Tiernan Stanton and Claire Beastrom each scored two and Shawnee Miles added one point of her own.
Though Ostenson was a bit concerned with how his team would rebound for the now pivotal game against Wheatland on Saturday, he admitted that the lessons his team gained in their hard fought battle against Douglas served them well against the Lady Bulldogs.
“Every time we play Douglas, we learn something and get better,” he began. “That showed against Wheatland because the press they threw at us a month ago really gave us fits, but on Saturday we broke it pretty easily three or four times for a score, and they got out of it.”
When these two teams played a month ago, Wheatland defeated Newcastle 56-42 and Danielle Brow scored 33 of those 56 points for her team.
With that in mind, this time around the Lady Dogies face-guarded Brow and held her to only 12 on the night. Tidyman and Beastrom were tasked with keeping up with, and trying to slow down, Brow who is quick and moves incredibly well away from the ball. In addition, Voelker and Miles were given the responsibility of keeping close contact with the Lady Bulldogs’ other threat, Khayla Otero and all four did their jobs well.
“Shelby and Mercedes worked their tails off to defend those two,” Ostenson smiled. “And Claire and Shawnee did a great job stepping in to give them a break from time to time.”
While her teammates poured their efforts into slowing down Wheatland’s two biggest threats, Jaylen Ostenson went to work on offense, and on cleaning up the glass. The freshman scored 23 points on the night, and those came from driving to the hoop for layups, from crashing the boards to get offensive putbacks, and from the charity stripe where she went 9-14. 
The entire contest was a battle, and while Newcastle held the lead for most of it, their biggest lead was only eight points. Wheatland out-rebounded the Lady Dogies, and the squad didn’t shoot well from the perimeter, only hitting one three-pointer in the contest which is very uncharacteristic of the team.
It was Cass who zeroed in on the rim from beyond the arc, and that shot was huge in its timing. The teams were tied at 31 with short time to play when Cass and Ostenson worked an inside out situation to give Cass the perfect set up to let it fly. 
“Ally got the steal and hit Jay who was diving for the basket,” Ostenson described. “Jay kicked it back out and Ally was in rhythm and nailed it. As soon as she let it go, I knew it was good and it was right on time to give us a three point lead.” 
The Lady Dogies held on to take the 36-34 win over the Lady Bulldogs which was an important win, because it gave Newcastle the two seed, but just by a hair. The tie-breaker works with first the quad, then head-to-head (all three teams split) and then to win percentage in the whole conference. Newcastle’s win over Wheatland gave them just a couple hundreths of a point over Thermopolis to pull ahead.
The seeding puts Newcastle in a bracket with Wheatland, Rawlins and Buffalo. Though the squad has yet to see Rawlins, they have picked up wins against the other two teams during the regular season.
Newcastle will face off against the Lady Bulldogs in the coffee and donut game at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday morning as the 3A East Regional Tournament gets underway in the Dome. 
“It’s the rubber match again, like last year, and the girls are excited to start off against them,” Ostenson nodded. “We also have a couple of aces up our sleeves. The girls were still tired from Friday, and they didn’t shoot well probably because they didn’t have the legs, so we will have a different situation on Thursday.”
“It looks like it could be a fun tournament, because after Douglas, it is anyone’s game for who makes it on to state and I’d give us a shot at any one of them,” he continued.  “Hopefully the Dome holds all the magic, and the girls will also be singing the National Anthem again to start the game on Thursday, and they kind of think that is a good luck charm so we’ll see.”