Lady Dogies roll through

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin.’ Keep those Dogies rollin.’ 
The fourth-ranked Lady Dogies continue to roll right along as they wrapped up another undefeated weekend picking up two solid wins over Wheatland and Rapid City Christian on the road Friday and Saturday. 
“I was really happy with the weekend as a whole,” nodded head coach Chad Ostenson. “Our defense is looking really good, and offensively we are putting things together as well, so that is just great to see.”
Friday’s road game was against the Lady Bulldogs in Wheatland. The Dawgs came into the game with a record of 3-6, however they had gone up against some tough competition in pre-conference play. 
Wheatland had put up 43 in a 3-point loss against 4A Riverton the weekend before, but the Lady Dogies’ stifling defense was more than the Lady Bulldogs could handle, and Newcastle was able to cruise to an easy 52-24 victory.
“We’re starting to establish an identity. We are getting
out and running and our defense is solid,” Ostenson said. “I was really happy with how we played on both ends of the court.” 
The Lady Dogies had their way with the Lady Bulldogs from the tip. The score was 12-2 at the end of one and 27-4 in Newcastle’s favor at the end of the half. Wheatland had put up a fair amount of shots but went into the locker room with a dismal single-digit shooting percentage from the field. They would end the game shooting only 18%, which is just about half of what they’re averaging on the year.
At the end of the third quarter, Wheatland’s score was still in single digits, however in the fourth they were able to put up 15 points after the Lady Dogies’ starters sat for most of the final frame of play.
“Wheatland is a team who is capable of coming back, so we needed to make sure we didn’t become complacent. We achieved that goal,” Ostenson stated. “I was also really glad that our second string got to see quite a bit of quality playing time against their varsity squad.”
Shelby Tidyman led the team with 18 points, and Jaylen Ostenson was next with a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. MacKenzie Conzelman put in 8 points, Tiernan Stanton and Jayde Harrington each scored 5, Hunter McFarland put in 4 points while Hailey Beastrom and Amesha Cummings each chipped in 1. 
Turnaround was pretty quick for the Lady Dogies. After arriving home late from Wheatland on Friday night
they were back on the road bright and early on Saturday for Spearfish and their 11 a.m. contest against the Lady Comets of Rapid City Christian.
“We came ready to play. The girls are excited that we are winning and they are excited that we are playing well, but they keep things all business too, which is the perfect mentality,” Ostenson declared. “Christian is good and Olivia Keefer has already committed to USD, so she’s a Division 1, top-30-college-in-the-nation player, so we knew we’d have our hands full with her.”
The Lady Dogies needed to bring their A-game to this contest, and they did just that to win a tight one by a 13-point margin of 58-45. 
Once again, the defensive game of Newcastle was up to par, which helped them to a 1-point lead at the end of the first, then the squad out-scored the Lady Comets 15-9 to take a 7-point lead into the locker room. 
“We played multiple defenses and kept rotating and mixing it up depending on our personnel on the floor,” Ostenson explained. “We also looked pretty good on offense and really got out and ran.” 
Ostenson’s crew threw man to man, a 2-3 zone as well as their 1-3-1 zone at them which kept the Comet’s on their toes, and players ran textbook lanes which afforded the guns of Jaylen Ostenson to baseball pass the ball down the court for easy fast-break layups, putting RCC on their heels.
In the middle of the fourth quarter, RCC made a run to keep the game within just a couple of possessions, and the shot clock put Newcastle into a must-score situation each trip on offense. 
“That was great because, rather than just holding onto our lead, we started to really play well by moving the ball, taking good inside-out 3s or finding open lanes to the basket, to take time off the clock and keep putting points on the board,” Ostenson said. “There were a couple of times we got a little quick triggered at the end, but for the most part we ran the shot clock to under 10 before we took good shots that fell for us. We took a lot of time off the clock and then scored to build/maintain our lead.”
McFarland did a great job down the stretch as well from the charity stripe. RCC fouled her twice in the final minute or two of the contest sending her to the line to shoot the bonus. McFarland calmly and beautifully sank all four of her free-throws with nothing but net shots to keep the game out of reach for the Lady Comets.
“I was just really pleased and proud of how they got out and ran and worked. They weren’t feeling 100%, but they still got out and worked their tails off,” Ostenson said. “Our defense is getting to be something we can hang our hats on, and that will bode well for us as we take on some of the teams we have coming up.”
Once again, Tidyman led the team with 18 points while Ostenson put up another double-double scoring 17 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. McFarland ended the day with 9 points, Stanton had 8 and Conzelman scored 6 on 2 makes from beyond the arc.
The wins bring Newcastle’s record to 6-1 on the year, but the meat of the season is about to begin as the squad faces their first Northeast Quadrant opponents this weekend which will begin to set the tone for seeding for the regional tournament.
The Thermopolis Lady Bobcats come to town on Friday then the Lady Dogies will travel to Buffalo on Saturday. The Lady Bison have caught the attention of coaches across the state as they moved up in the rankings last week to fifth place.
“We’re going to see some pretty good pressure defense this weekend,” Ostenson said. “The kids like to play in Buffalo because they have a loud student section and a pretty good band which makes the atmosphere pretty exciting to play in. We have a long way to go, but I think we’re on the right track if we can keep it up.” 
On Friday, games begin at 2 p.m. with varsity tipping off at 3:30, and the game in Buffalo is scheduled to tip off at 1:30.