Newcastle men drop two on the road

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies put up a lot of points in their two road contests last week scoring 20-plus more than their average, however head coach Allen Von Eye’s crew didn’t execute their defense on par with their offense, giving up more than they scored.
On Thursday, the Dogies suffered a 69-80 point loss in Thermopolis, then on Saturday the Bison got the better of Newcastle, 91-63, in Buffalo.
Thermopolis was an important contest for both the Dogies and the Bobcats as seeding for the Regional tournament was at stake. The Dogies went in with a one-game advantage but needed to make it two in order to secure the No. 3 seed for the post-season tournament. 
“We knew they were going to be very aggressive because they had a lot to gain from the game and a lot to lose from it as well,” Von Eye began. “Unfortunately, it was a game of lulls for us where we’d let them go on a little run. We’d then claw our way back into it and then they’d extend their lead on us.”
The Bobcats held a 41-29 lead at the end of the half, then the Dogies outscored them by one in the second half of play. Unfortunately, the hole they’d dug early was too much to overcome. It was a back and forth game where Thermopolis got up as much as 18 points on the Dogies after which Newcastle came roaring back to cut it to five.
“You just use so much energy when you’re digging yourself out of a hole that it makes it tough to get ahead,” Von Eye insisted. “We also had a lot of guys off the floor in foul trouble, and that just makes for a difficult situation, but the kids battled hard and I was really proud of our effort the entire ball game.”
Seniors Christian Santos and Zach Purviance put the team on their backs offensively and between the two of them, scored 45 of the Dogies’ points. Santos went five for six from beyond the arc and ended the night with 21 points, a career high for him. Purviance uncharacteristically couldn’t get shots to fall from the perimeter, so he attacked the rim for his 24 points. 
“Though we lost, the game was good for us in a couple of ways,” Von Eye determined. “It was the best offensive game for Christian ever. He was really assertive and made really nice decisions from the onset. The Bobcats were just better than us that night. We had our moments, but they had more.”
The loss ramped up the urgency for the next two quad games for Newcastle. In order to reclaim the No. 3 seed for regionals, they would have to defeat one of the two best teams in the quadrant — Buffalo or Douglas — and they had their shot against the Bison in Buffalo on Saturday. 
“We wanted to change some things up against them and switch up defenses but they are just a really good basketball team,” sighed Von Eye. “I thought offensively, again we did a really nice job even though they were super physical and super strong with us. We scored 63 and shot better than they did from the floor, but again we didn’t do so well defensively.” 
The Dogies gave up 28 offensive boards and on top of that turned the ball over 10 more times than Buffalo. 
“They got up 37-38 more shots than us and that’s your game,” Von Eye concluded. “You take those opportunities away and keep things even, it’s a three-point ball game.”
According to Von Eye, his squad did a much better job handling the basketball, but they went on a couple of spells again where they had three consecutive turnovers that led to buckets in the first quarter then did it again in the second.
“Those 6-0 runs just break your back,” he sighed. “We were doing a lot of really good things, and we were doing some great things offensively, so that is disappointing. We battled and fought until the final horn and everyone who got on the floor did good things for us.”
Three Dogies ended the night in double figures with Purviance leading the way with 20 points. Tate Engle and Hayden Overman each finished with 12, Santos had nine, Gavin Gray four and Avery Chick, Quint Perino and Hogan Tystad added two points each.
Currently, Thermopolis has the advantage in all tiebreakers for regional seeding which makes the contest against Douglas this Friday so much more important.
“Though there is not a big dropoff between Douglas and Buffalo, we match up better with Douglas, so we would much rather face off against the Bearcats who are the No. 2 in the quadrant,” Von Eye stated. “They are playing some really solid basketball and have a freshman player who is playing really well, so we will need to play well.”
On Saturday the Dogies will take on Wheatland in the final regular season game of the year in Newcastle. The varsity is scheduled to play at 7 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.