Ladies win one, lose one

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies split their games last weekend, losing to Torrington on Friday night, and picking up their third win of the season against the 2A Lady Rams of Big Horn on Saturday.
The squad also played both of their games down two starters. On Friday, the team was minus point guard Shelby Tidyman who partially dislocated her shoulder against Wheatland the previous weekend, and Ally Cass who was sidelined due to illness. On Saturday, Tidyman was still out, and then Madi Pearson was taken out of commission after she dislocated her shoulder in the second quarter.
When Torrington and Newcastle met back on January 10th, the Lady Blazers squeezed out a 58-52 win over the Lady Dogies. However, Newcastle took on the Blazers on their home court without two starters which head coach Chad Ostenson admitted hurt a little bit. 
“The kids followed the game plan and did exactly what we asked them to do, but every year it seems like we’re the ones who help them out and get them started,” Ostenson sighed. “They came into the game shooting 17% from three for the year. So we focused on slowing down their big girls who hurt us earlier before and we did a pretty good job of doing that. However, they took advantage of us doubling down on the bigs and started to hit from the outside where they shot almost 30% from three.”
A bright spot in the contest was that the Lady Dogies hung with Torrington when it came to rebounding. The Lady Blazers are notoriously adept at out-performing other teams on the boards, but Newcastle ended the night only six rebounds behind them, which Ostenson was very pleased to see.
Unfortunately, the absence of Tidyman and Cass limited the effectiveness of the Lady Dogies’ press, however Ostenson had some bench players step up and perform well over the course of the two nights.
“Tiernan Stanton saw more time than usual with those two out, and she did some very good things rebounding and defensively,” Ostenson exclaimed. “MacKenzie Conzelman came in and did some good things as well, and Sara Sweet and Claire Beastrom got some added minutes on the court, helping out with the rebounding situation.”
Stanton scored five points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked a shot, Conzelman added three points, four rebounds, one steal and she took a charge, while Sweet and Beastrom each added
two points and each also had four rebounds. 
“It was really nice to see those girls do those kinds of things, and Tiernan gave us really good minutes both nights,” Ostenson nodded. “It’s nice to have six feet standing under the basket to help out when we get beat on defense and to clean up the glass.” 
Unfortunately, the Lady Dogies were simply overpowered by the Lady Blazers and dropped the contest 33-64. Scoring was spread across many players with Jaylen Ostenson leading all with 16 points. In addition
to Stanton, Beastrom, Sweet and Beastrom, Shawnee Miles put in three points while
Isabel Frank and Hunter McFarland each contributed two for the team.
The Lady Dogies went into Saturday’s contest against the Lady Rams of Big Horn with Cass back in a limited role. However, after Pearson suffered her shoulder injury, the bench stepped up once again to fill some big shoes.
Stanton contributed four points and pulled down eight boards, and McFarland played some huge minutes as well to get some kids off the floor and a break. 
“Though the reason for getting young kids playing time wasn’t ideal, it was
nice to see what those kids could do,” Ostenson nodded. “They came in and did a great job of contributing in tight situations.”
The game was close to start, and the score was 7-8 in the Lady Rams’ favor at the end of the first quarter, but that would be the only lead that Big Horn enjoyed. The Lady Dogies outscored them 8-4 in the second quarter to take a 15-12 lead into the locker room. 
So far this season, the third quarter has been a challenge for the team, but that all changed on Saturday as the squad came out on a mission and scored 14 points which nearly doubled their score. 
The Lady Rams also had a decent third quarter putting in 11, but Newcastle was able to stretch their lead to six. In the final frame of play, the two teams matched each other bucket for bucket so the Lady Dogies maintained their lead to take the win, 35-29.
“That is probably more than we’ve scored in the third quarter in the last three games combined,” chuckled Ostenson. “We started running clock at around five minutes left to play in order to
limit their ability to have the ball. We also shot free throws well down the stretch, even though we didn’t start out all that great.”
Another positive of the contest was that Newcastle outrebounded Big Horn by 13, pulling down 14 offensive boards to their eight. It has been a goal for Ostenson that his team dominate the boards, so this was exactly what he wanted to see. 
Though Big Horn is a 2A team, they beat Buffalo by four points on Friday, so it was a good win for the Lady Dogies who lost to the Lady Bison there in January.
“They shot the ball well and they are a decent team,” Ostenson nodded. “They know what they’re doing and take care of the ball pretty well, so it was a good win for us.”
Jaylen Ostenson got a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Mercedes Voelker was next with eight points, Conzelman had five points, Cass added four, while Sweet rounded it out with
two points.  
The Lady Dogies are back to conference action this Friday when they host the Burns Lady Broncs. Then on Saturday, they are home again and will take on the Lady Cardinals of Chadron, Neb.