Men are third seed for regionals

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Newcastle Dogies ended their regular season of play with a great deal riding on the outcome of their three contests on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, as Regional seeding would be decided based on the outcome of the first two games against Thermopolis and Douglas. Two wins would give the Dogies the second seed going into the Regional Tournament on Thursday, but one loss would mean they would be the third seed.
“Three games in three days was a good prep for Regionals,” began head coach Allen Von Eye. “We knew it would be difficult because there was still a lot riding on the outcome of those games for seeding purposes. We knew we would have to play good basketball and do some good things in order to set ourselves up as best as we could.”
The first contest of the weekend against the Bobcats of Thermopolis was a makeup game from the previous Friday which had been postponed due to weather. For the Dogies, the timing of this pivotal game was beneficial given the team’s leading scorer Cade Ostenson sat out that weekend with an injury. 
With a little over a week to heal, Ostenson was back on the court as the contest tipped off on Thursday, but Von Eye admitted he was uncertain how his team would perform.
“Thermop is a worrisome team because they have some kids who are playing pretty confident right now, and are shooting the ball well,” he frowned. “We were also worried about Cade working himself in after only 40 minutes of practice in the last two weeks. Practice can’t simulate a game, so we just didn’t know where he’d be at.”
Though Ostenson wasn’t quite up to his usual level of play early on, as the game progressed he found his rhythm and ended up leading his team to victory with 18 points, four rebounds, three assists, one steal, one block and one charge taken.
The contest was tight through the first three quarters of play, with the Dogies holding a slim three point lead. Finally, in the final frame of play, Newcastle blew the game open by outscoring the Bobcats 24-11.  
Several Dogies had a hand in the 63-47 win with Dylon Tidyman scoring 16, Dylan Talley 10, Kyle Haslam nine and Sawyer Roberson six. Isaiah Brooks and Isaiah Covey contributed two points each to round out the scoring for the Dogies. 
With one W under their belts, the Dogies turned their eyes to Friday night’s contest against the Douglas Bearcats. When these two teams met earlier in the season, the Dogies secured a decisive win, but the Converse County team came into this game playing much better ball.
“Douglas is a good basketball team who is starting to find their stride,” Von Eye declared. “They are not deep, going only seven, but they give matchup problems and have potential to shoot very well from the perimeter.”
The Bearcats came out clicking on all cylinders, which they hadn’t done the first time the Dogies played them. Unfortunately Von Eye’s squad also gave the Bearcats some open looks, which they took advantage of in the first quarter. 
“We gave up three threes that were uncontested, and we just can’t do that against a team that loves to shoot the three ball,” Von Eye sighed. “They jumped up on us early and did some good things. They gave us troubles defensively, and we had a lack of communication all over the place, so we gave up a lot of easy shots.”
When the teams went into the locker room at the half, Douglas led the Dogies 36-26. Fortunately, Newcastle started tightening down their defense when they returned from the break, and began to chip away at the Bearcats’ lead. 
By the end of the third quarter, there was only a two point differential and with 5.4 seconds to play in the contest, Tidyman knocked down a shot to tie it at 52. He drew a foul on the play, so had an opportunity to get his team a one-point lead, but he was just off the mark. So the contest went in to overtime.
“Offensively, I thought we did some really good things for most of the game,” Von Eye nodded. “In the second half, we had some guys hit some big shots and do what they needed to do - kind of like the Thermop game - Sawyer, Dylan, and Kyle did some good things and got to the rim. We did a good job to battle back from being down double-digits to get it tied up, and give ourselves a chance.”
Unfortunately, throughout the contest free throws were the Dogies’ Achilles Heel, and defense broke down one too many times leaving Douglas’ hottest player open for a baseline three point shot late in OT. That gave the Bearcats a three-point advantage they held on to for the 63-60 win.
The loss meant the Dogies would settle for the third seed from the Northeast Quadrant at the Regional Tournament.
Newcastle headed to Wheatland for their final contest of the weekend on Saturday. 
“It’s one of the toughest places to play in the conference, and it’s against a solid basketball team that is doing what they need to do to give themselves their best opportunity to be successful by controlling tempo,” Von Eye stated. “We were on our third game in three days, but I thought we played pretty solid basketball, even though the score didn’t indicate it.”
Reminiscent of the last time these two teams met, the Bulldogs slowed the game down taking Newcastle out of their favored up-tempo style of play. According to Von Eye, his team didn’t shoot overly well, but their offensive game was right on point.
“I thought we played well, even though our legs weren’t quite there for accuracy on our shots,” he began. “Scrappy [Haslam] played well and hit some huge shots for us, but other than that we didn’t shoot well from the perimeter. Our offense ran about as good against them as anyone all season and we had them on their heels most of the time, so we got the looks we wanted to all game long. We just couldn’t capitalize on them.”
The Dogies were able to do what was needed down the stretch to pull out the 38-35 victory over the Bulldogs, so ended their regular season with a win on the court where the 3A East Regional Tournament will take place this weekend.
“It was a good win and a good way to close out the season, but now we’re back at zeros,” Von Eye stated. “We open with Torrington on Thursday morning, which I like because it’s a good matchup and I think the bracket is set up just how we want it. We are two similar teams who do a lot of the same stuff, but it will be a dogfight for all of the tournament. There are going to be two teams who are going home broken-hearted because they have a legitimate claim to a state berth.”
The Dogies are scheduled to tip off against the Trailblazers at 10 a.m. Thursday morning, following the Lady Dogies contest at 8:30 a.m. The games will be broadcasted on the NFHS Network (pay-per-view) and on KASL radio.