Ladies net first win of season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
It’s a long haul over the mountain to play in Thermopolis, and it’s even a longer journey when you have to go around the mountain to get home, but for the Lady Dogies those hours on the road were worth it as they brought home their first win of the season, and their first quadrant victory against the Lady Bobcats last Friday night.
“It was a big win for us,” head coach Chad Ostenson smiled. “It was a great night and it was so good to see the ball go through the hoop finally.”
Sophomore Mercedes Voelker started the night off right by dialing in on her first three point attempt, and from there went on to go four of seven on the night to give her team much needed offense in the contest.
“When Mercedes hit that first three, I felt pretty good that things were going to go our way,” Ostenson nodded. “She’s the type of shooter that if she can get going, she can keep it going and that’s exactly what she did.”
The Lady Dogies held the lead throughout the contest going into the locker room with a 30-17 point lead at the half. The Lady Bobcats went on a run in the third quarter, outscoring Newcastle 14-5, but Ostenson’s team rallied in the fourth to pull out the 53-41 victory.
“We had a little lull in the third quarter where they were able to fight their way back into the game a little bit,” Ostenson admitted. “But we hit a couple of shots at the right time which changed the momentum when we needed to so that helped us out a bunch.”
Lexus Voelker had one of the best nights of her career pouring in 24 points, 16 of which came from the charity stripe. Free throws in general were very good for the Lady Dogies with the team shooting 70 percent on the night. Voelker went 16-20 from the line to help that percentage with many of the makes occurring in that vital fourth quarter when the pressure ramped up.
In addition to shooting well, the Lady Dogies were also able to take care of the basketball much better than they have thus far this season, only turning it over 14 times throughout the contest. Improvement in both of those areas gave Newcastle a big advantage.
Ostenson noted that Lauren Steveson contributed a great deal to her team’s win as she filled up every category on the stat sheet with five points, nine rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block.
Like Steveson, Lexus Voelker was an all-around performer on the night. In addition to leading her team in scoring, she pulled down four rebounds, had three assists, four steals and one block.
Mercedes Voelker ended the night with 12 points, while Makenzie Wagoner followed with seven points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Kaylee Sweet contributed three points and Grace Coy rounded out the scoring for Newcastle with two.
“We were able get into some sets that we ran pretty well and I think we took our time on offense, got our feet set and took good shots,” Ostenson analyzed. “The game slowed down for them a little to where they were catching and shooting in rhythm rather than forcing shots.”
The victory not only gave the ladies their first W of the season, but it put their quadrant record at 1-0 which Ostenson noted will be big when it comes to seeding for the regional tournament. 
On Saturday, the Lady Dogies hosted their second quadrant game of the weekend against the number two Lady Bison of Buffalo, and although they played well according to Ostenson, the fire-power and talent of the Johnson County team was more than Newcastle could handle.
The Lady Dogies would succumb to the mercy rule in the fourth quarter and ultimately fell to the Bison 23-67, however, Ostenson felt his team played well throughout, and especially in the first quarter.
“I was really happy with how we started on Saturday, but it is just tough against a team of Buffalo’s caliber,” he admitted. “We are getting better, even though the score didn’t necessarily show it, and the kids really stepped up and played well for the most part.”
Newcastle was able to hit a couple of threes early, and Kaylee Sweet dominated the boards in the first quarter pulling down four in the first two minutes of play. Ostenson was buoyed to see the improvement in rebounding and in knocking down shots that his team showed against a tough team like Buffalo, stating that it should bode well in the weeks to come.
“Going forward, if we can keep getting the buy-in, and keep improving we should be in decent shape by Regionals,” he nodded. “I can see us getting better each week so that is really positive.”
This weekend, the Lady Dogies will see the last of the conference teams for the first time as they go to Douglas to take on the number one Lady Bearcats on Friday and then will host the Wheatland Lady Bulldogs on Saturday.