Ladies continue their winning ways

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
Heading into last Friday’s cross-quadrant make-up game against the Burns Lady Broncs, junior Jaylen Ostenson was on the cusp of achieving the milestone of having scored 1,000 points in her high school career on the hardwood. 
Foremost in Ostenson’s mind as the game got underway was to get another win with her team who has lost only one game so far this season, and the Lady Dogies accomplished that goal with a decisive 65-32 win. Ostenson also hit, and surpassed, 1,000 points before the first half came to a close.
“I knew I was getting there, but I didn’t realize how close I was until you [Sonja Karp] told me,” Ostenson said. “My goal for the game was not to score a thousand points at all. My goal was to win the game, and if it happened, it happened. It was kind of cool that it did happen at home though.”
“It was a nice milestone for her to achieve,” said Chad Ostenson, NHS ladies’ basketball head coach and Jaylen’s dad. “It came as a result of a lot of work, a lot of time in the gym, and a lot of shots put up. It also takes good teammates. Without them, she doesn’t get the ball and doesn’t get the looks, and she would give them a lot of credit too.”
Throughout the game on Friday, the Lady Broncs put up more of a fight than the last couple of opponents have against the No. 1-ranked Lady Dogies. In fact, at times it looked as though a WWE wrestling match was taking place on the court. Three Lady Dogies had the battle scars to prove that the action got a little up-close and personal throughout the contest. 
“It was a very physical game and not all that pretty, but we’ve got to be able to battle and win those types of games,” Coach Ostenson said. “I thought we came out and did some nice things in the first quarter, and we took care of business, but they are the No. 2 team in the southeast and they are definitely capable of putting points on the board.”
The Lady Dogies ended that first eight minutes up 21-8 over the Broncs, then out-scored them 16-8 in the second to go into the locker room with a 37-16 lead.
The second half was much of the same with the Lady Dogies comfortably in the lead until the final buzzer rang. 
Ostenson finished the night leading all scorers with 21 points and she also brought down 10 rebounds for a double-double. Shelby Tidyman was next with 13 points and MacKenzie Conzelman was also in double figures with 10. Hunter McFarland ended the night with 9 points, Tiernan Stanton had 6, freshman Hailey Beastrom kicked in 4 points and Jayde Harrington added 2 to round out the scoring. 
On Saturday, the Lady Dogies headed to Chadron to take on a talented Lady Cardinals team. 
“Chadron was a really good game for us,” said the coach. “They were pretty solid defensively and could also hit from beyond the arc.”
The Lady Cardinals’ defense was quick and aggressive and they came out face-guarding Ostenson to try to slow her down. While they saw some success, holding her to 9 points, the Lady Dogies have a lot of other weapons and they took advantage of the added pressure on Ostenson and put points on the board.
Chadron came out firing in the first quarter hitting 3 from beyond the arc and was able to take the lead twice before Newcastle pulled ahead to take a 15-12 lead by the end of those first eight minutes of play.
The second quarter was also a back-and-forth battle where the Lady Cardinals hit two more 3s and two more lead changes took place. However, once again Newcastle ended the quarter on top 27-26 as they headed into the locker room.
“We weathered their storm and that’s good for us to be in that position,” Coach Ostenson insisted. “The girls just don’t get worked up and there never seemed to be a feeling that they didn’t seem to feel in control of the game, even when Chadron took the lead a couple of times in the second quarter.” 
Newcastle took over in the third quarter as they pulled out to a 12-point lead. The Cardinals pulled back to within 3 with short time remaining, and then Ostenson hit a 3, McFarland drove in for 2 and then Conzelman hit a 3 with 3:21 to play to get back to a double-digit lead and the Lady Dogies finished the contest up 50-36. 
Chadron didn’t hit the 3s like they did in the first half, only making one, and Newcastle also cleaned the glass well, out-rebounding Chadron by 11 boards.
Ostenson had 14 rebounds alone, and Stanton was a blocking machine under the basket. What seemed like a six or seven block game, was actually only four by Big Red, but she was swatting the ball across the gym.
“After I block a couple of shots, I think it gets in their head a little bit. They’re like, ‘ooh the big girl’s down
there so I might not want to take that shot,’” Stanton said. “So then it forces them to
take deeper shots which aren’t as high a percentage shot as one from the block. It just makes them think about it a little more.”
Rebounding and blocking has really come on in the latter part of the season for Stanton. 
“It really just kind of clicked in the Douglas game a couple of weeks ago when I had 18,” Stanton said. “After that, Chad told me since I showed him I could do it, now I had to keep doing it. Also, my wrist has been feeling a lot better so it’s easier for me now to come down with the ball and be strong with it.”
Tidyman took her turn as leading scorer for the Lady Dogies finishing the night with 19 points. Conzelman added 11, Ostenson got 9 and McFarland ended with 7. Stanton and Harrington chipped in 2 apiece to round out the scoring.
On Tuesday, the Lady Dogies played host to the Lady Bobcats of Upton in a Weston County Civil War and a battle between two No. 1 teams. The Bobcats are ranked first in 1A while the Dogies are first in 3A.
“I’m so excited to play the Bobcats. We haven’t played them since middle school and it was always fun to play them then,” said Jaylen Ostenson. “Then we’re both the No. 1 team in our classes, so that is also pretty cool.” 
“It’ll be a good game and it should bring a lot of people to the Dome,” added Stanton. “They are a good team so it should be fun to play them.”
On Friday, the Lady Dogies will travel to Thermopolis to kick off round two of Northeast Quadrant play. Games are early with JV playing at 2 p.m. and varsity tipping off at 3:30.