Ladies face third-quarter adversity

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Fall is fading into winter and the days are getting colder. The Lady Dogies are dealing with those lower temperatures outside, but are feeling the bigger chill of the third quarter doldrums in the gym so far this season.
Last Thursday through Saturday, the squad faced Sundance, Lead and Belle Fourche in the annual Stateline Shootout, and though the first two games started with promise for the ladies, coming out of the locker room after the half-time break appeared to be a challenge.
“The first half against Sundance was good, and the first half against Lead was really good. In fact, that’s the best we’ve played so far this year,” head coach Chad Ostenson declared. “But we came out in the third quarter and just struggled. We’ve had this problem in the past and I thought we’d done some things to try to address it, but it looks like we still have work to do.”
Indeed, the score provided the evidence for Ostenson’s claim as the Lady Dogies held a 20-15 lead at the half against Sundance, they finished the first quarter against Lead up 18-14 and were tied at 25 at the half. Unfortunately, both teams outscored Newcastle to take the lead by the end of the third frame. Sundance went on a 14-2 run and the Lady Golddiggers put up 16 to the Lady Dogies’ five. It was enough to deliver the fatal blow in both contests.
“We made it fairly clear to everyone that coming out flat after half-time is what is killing us,” Ostenson sighed. “We have to get going and pick up the intensity when we come out of the locker room.”
In their first contest of the Shootout against Sundance, the Lady Dogies lost by a seven-point margin, 31-38. They played the Lady Bulldogs even in the fourth quarter, but the third quarter run by the home team was the difference in the game.
“Sundance played a good game against us,” Ostenson admitted. “They threw a 1-3-1 zone at us just like Custer, and we struggled a bit with that. We still need to find our spots in the gaps, but I think that we are learning how to do that.”
Lexus Voelker led her team with 11 points, six rebounds, one steal and one block. She was followed by her sister Mercedes, who put up five points. Lauren Steveson, Grace Coy and Claire Beastrom each had four points, while Kaylee Sweet rounded out the scoring with three tallies.
On Friday, the team travelled to Belle Fourche to take on the Lead Lady Golddiggers. Once again, they came out on the losing end, 37-52, but also once again, they got off to a great start.
Like the game against Sundance, the first two quarters went well for Newcastle, and the fourth quarter resulted in the Lady Dogies being narrowly outscored. However, it was the third frame which put the nail in the coffin for the squad.
“We saw a press against Lead and we struggled with turnovers, but I could also see that we got better over the course of the game,” Ostenson declared. 
Once again, Lexus Voelker led her team in scoring with 12 points, while Mercedes was next with eight. Beastrom followed with seven, Coy had six, and Sweet and Steveson each added three.
The Lady Dogies headed into their toughest matchup of the weekend against the Belle Fourche Lady Broncs on Saturday without Lexus, their leading scorer, who suffered a hamstring injury in the game on Friday. Ostenson admitted he was nervous how the team would handle the key player’s absence.
“Lex plays 31 and a half minutes per game. She doesn’t come off the floor in practice or in games. She is our leading scorer, so not having her at all was a little daunting,” he sighed. “But I told the other kids that they all got better when she couldn’t play, and even Lexus got better by sitting and watching and seeing what she could do in those situations. It actually was a good look, which I think will pay dividends going forward.”
Unfortunately, her absence was felt as the Lady Dogies struggled with offense throughout the contest, dropping the game 25-63. However, despite the results of that contest, as well as the others over the tournament, Ostenson stressed he saw some positive things and some real growth from his squad.
“When you look at how we handled things against Custer how we handled things on Saturday, you can see that the girls are learning and adapting. We’re slowing down, we’re getting better shots, and things are looking better,” he analyzed. “Defensively, we are playing pretty well. We had some offensive droughts at various times in our games, but our defense was able to keep us in it and give us a chance.”
Turnovers were what concerned Ostenson the most, with the team committing 35 against Lead and 37 against Belle. With each of those, the Lady Dogies forfeited an opportunity to score and offered up their opponent that possibility, which limited the team’s potential to come out of the game with a victory.
“Turnovers killed us in both of those games because not being able to get a shot makes it tough to win,” Ostenson sighed. “We will definitely be working on that this week and over the break. We don’t have to prepare for a game, so we can go back to basketball camp kind of practices this week to work on those individual skills.”
Mercedes Voelker led the team in scoring against Belle with eight points, Coy followed with six,  and Sweet and Beastrom each contributed four points. Wagoner added two and Steveson had one.
“For three losses, I feel pretty decent about the weekend,” Ostenson declared.  “I don’t like losing but I feel good about where we’re at as a team, and there was some growing they did together in the last couple of games. We have a lot of work to do, but I really think we can get there.”
The Lady Dogies will tip off the new year by opening up conference play as they go to Torrington on the 6th to take on the Lady Trailblazers, and then will host Gering on the 7th of January.