Ladies notch first win of season
Newcastle High School’s Lady Dogie basketball team wrapped up their pre-conference season Dec. 19–21 at the annual Stateline Shootout Tournament in Sundance. Head coach Mike Pederson and his young crew went into their second weekend of tough competition on Thursday, facing off against the fifth-ranked 2A Lady Bulldogs of Sundance, then followed that contest up with games against Lead on Friday and Belle Fourche on Saturday.
The Lady Dogies battled against Sundance and dropped a close 48-55 contest on Thursday, then they put things together against Lead to get the decisive 52-38 win over the Lady Diggers on Friday, and finally they succumbed to the Lady Broncs 33-60 to wrap up the tournament on Saturday.
The Lady Dogies started the game strong against the Lady Bulldogs on Thursday and led the contest 26-22 at the half. Sundance was able to out-score Newcastle by one in the third frame of play, but it would be the fourth quarter where the Crook County team took over and dominated Pederson’s squad, putting up 18 points to the Lady Dogies eight to steal the win out from under them.
“We struggled to score in the second and fourth quarters,” Pederson explained. “We ran into some foul trouble and then we seemed to kind of relax a little too much.”
Adalyn Olson and Syd Pederson led the Lady Dogies in scoring, racking up 19 and 16 points, respectively.
On Friday, the Lady Dogies had a sluggish start to their contest against Lead and found themselves down two points at the end of the first quarter. In contrast to the night before, this time Newcastle came to life in the second and fourth quarters, out-scoring the Lady Diggers by nine and seven points, respectively, to cruise to their 14-point victory, and their first W of the season.
“We really didn’t show up for about half of the game,” Pederson said. “We had more turnovers, and played very in-the-moment, but the second and fourth quarters really helped us out and we were able to ramp up our offense to secure our first win.”
Three Lady Dogies made into double figures in scoring for the game with Olson and Brooklyn Benshoof leading with 15 points each and then Pederson was close behind with 13 points.
The contest against the Lady Broncs on Saturday was rough for Pederson’s crew. Belle Fourche dominated the first half, out-scoring Newcastle 23-10 in the first quarter and 20-2 in the second. Heading into the second half with a 43-12 deficit was just too much to overcome for the Lady Dogies.
“We came out really flat and then we just couldn’t pull it together and bounce back,” Pederson said, with a sigh. “There didn’t seem to be a lot of motivation to stay in and fight and finish the game.”
The Lady Dogies did better with turnovers in their second weekend of play, keeping that stat under 21 per game. However, Pederson noted that his squad continued to struggle in the rebounding stat line, which offered their opponents second and third opportunities to put points on the board.
The Lady Dogies will get back into action after the Christmas break by hosting the Custer Lady Wildcats on Saturday, Jan. 11 beginning at noon with JV and varsity at 1:30.