Lady Dogies get bullied

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies had a rough go of it last weekend as they hit the road for Douglas on Friday and then on to Wheatland on Saturday. The Lady Bearcats lived up to their hype and ran over Newcastle 67-21, and the Lady Bulldogs added insult to injury when they handed Newcastle their second loss in as many days, out-scoring them 56-42.
Mid-game scoring slumps were the Lady Dogies’ undoing in both contests. On Friday, Douglas held them scoreless in the second quarter, and on Saturday Newcastle was only able to muster two points in the third quarter.
“Douglas is maybe the finest girls basketball team that I have seen. They are solid from one through seven and they have two kids who come in off the bench and fit seamlessly into the rest,” head coach Chad Ostenson admitted. “Unfortunately, when we struggle to score in one of the four quarters, it makes it tough to get the win, especially on the road.”
The Lady Bearcats indeed have all the pieces to be a very talented basketball team. They boast a 6’4” post who allows the rest of the players to take chances on defense, because she is their safety net in the paint if they get beat. She is also an huge asset on offense because her teammates can just throw the ball up, and she goes and gets it to score, or she cleans up the boards for put backs underneath.
“When Douglas took those chances on defense and we got around them, she would just swat it away when we’d go to the hoop,” Ostenson chuckled. “I was happy that we did take it to her, but we’ll just have to get a little more creative the next time we see them.” 
Douglas held the Lady Dogies to just seven points in the first half, all of which came in the first quarter. While Newcastle struggled to score, the Lady Bearcats did so at will, pouring in 23 points in the first quarter and 21 in the second to take a dominating 44-7 lead at the half.
“Coming out of the locker room, I think we were still frustrated over that, because I think we could have scored more in the second half,” Ostenson began. “But they just have all the pieces and are just a talented team. You have to give them credit because they are as advertised, or even better.” 
The mercy rule, which is a running clock, went into effect at the end of the third quarter so in the final frame the Lady Dogies were able to go point for point with the Bearcats to score seven each.
Mercedes Voelker led her team with six points, Shelby Tidyman added four, Hunter McFarland chipped in three and Jaylen Ostenson, Ally Cass, Sara Sweet and Tiernan Stanton each contributed two points. 
The Wheatland Lady Bulldogs presented another challenge to the Lady Dogies on Saturday. Though not as big as Douglas, the team is quick with some talented, veteran players who gave Newcastle all they could handle.
Both teams came out firing and by the end of the first quarter, Wheatland held a slim 14-13 lead. After the second frame came to a close, it was still a one point ball game as each squad scored 11 points.
However, the third quarter doldrums once again struck the Lady Dogies, and offensive struggles and too many turnovers allowed the Lady Bulldogs to go on a 16-2 run. 
“We need to figure out how to get the girls going out of the locker room, because the third quarter has given us fits for the last couple of years,” Ostenson sighed. “Other than that, we played well. We were down 17 at one point in the fourth quarter and we cut it to four or five, but then the energy we expended just left us low in the tank.”
Shot selection in the contest was a bit worrisome for Ostenson. His team threw up 29 shots from beyond the arc and only 16 from two-point land. Though the Lady Dogies have several players who are pretty accurate from three, Ostenson stressed that those are not the shots that they should be defaulting to. 
In addition, Newcastle struggled to get to the line in both games. They shot zero free throws in Douglas and only had eight opportunities from the charity stripe in Wheatland.
“We need to get back into our offense, take it inside and get fouled or kick it back out for good looks at the perimeter,” Ostenson declared. “We were among the top in the state in getting to the line, but not after this weekend.” 
Jaylen Ostenson led her team with 15 points, Tidyman was next with 10, Voelker was good for nine points, Cass had five and MacKenzie Conzelman added three to round out the scoring for the squad.
The Lady Dogies will kick start the second half of the season this week as they are starting to see teams for the second time. The contest against Rawlins that was postponed on January 11th was cancelled on Tuesday due to weather issues again.
On Friday the team will travel to Torrington to take on the Lady Blazers for the second time this season, and then 2A Big Horn comes to town on Saturday for an inter-class matchup.