Wildcats too much for Dogies

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies ran up against a tough, big, veteran team in the Wildcats last Friday in Custer. A rough first quarter in which Newcastle dug themselves a 12-point hole set the tone for the remainder of the game as Custer would ultimately take the 67-53 win.
“They were exactly what we knew they’d be. They are big, they are veterans, and they are just more advanced than us at this point,” head coach Allen Von Eye sighed. “We’re pretty much starting from scratch with a bunch of young kids who haven’t played together much, and who don’t have varsity experience.”
Von Eye admitted that he was a little worried going into the contest because much of the team’s arsenal had yet to be implemented, and what was in place was still new.
“We’ve spent most of our time working on us and getting up to speed,” he stated. “We’ve really been focusing on our motion offense, and that showed early in the game.”
The Wildcats threw a run and jump full court press on the Dogies, and it was obvious the pressure had the young Newcastle team a little shook.
“We got scared with that pressure in our face, so we struggled to advance the ball,” Von Eye admitted. “We went several trips in a row where we never even got a shot off at the beginning of the first quarter.”
Though the Dogies were able to settle in and handle the pressure better as the game wore on, they found themselves down 6-18 at the end of the first quarter. They went on to score 14 points in the second, 15 in the third and a game high 18 in the fourth quarter but it was not enough to catch Custer.
“We battled hard the whole game, but we turned it over a lot as well,” Von Eye stated. “We ended with 30 turnovers, 19 of which came in the first half, and they put up 25 more shots than we did. It’s hard to win with those numbers.”
Newcastle went into the locker room down 20-38 at the half, so Von Eye was curious to see how his team would respond to the adversity.
“We spotted them a pretty big lead, so I wanted to see if they would roll over and fold in the second half, or if they would come out fighting,” he began. “I was glad to see that the guys chose to keep battling rather than call it a day.”
The Dogies went on a couple of runs where they were able to cut the lead to 11 points, but then some defensive lapses let Custer regain momentum to continue to keep the game out of reach.
“Unfortunately, you expend so much energy trying to cut a lead like that, that when you have a couple of misses on defense, it makes it tough,” Von Eye frowned. “We had one point where we hit three threes in a five possession stretch which led to some doubt in their minds, but then they were able to come back with a couple of layups to get their confidence back.”
Dylon Tidyman led the team with 14 points, Zach Purviance added 11, Peyton Tystad nine, Landon Engle had seven, Tate Engle and Jake Deveraux put in four points each, Aidan Chick drained one from beyond the arc for three, and Slade Roberson rounded out scoring for the team with one point. 
With the exception of Tidyman and Tystad, only Purviance has any varsity time under his belt. Given the lack of experience, Von Eye was pleased with some of the things he saw his young team do in their opening contest.
“Every single possession is paramount and it was a great learning situation for us. I was proud of the way we battled down the stretch all the way to the end,” he nodded. “We had a bunch of young kids who came in, who maybe weren’t happy with how they played, but as a coach I felt good about it from guys who had never played varsity.”
“There were a lot of good things, and a lot of things we have to work on, but this is the time of year for us to analyze and see what we need to fix,” Von Eye continued. “These games before Christmas are going to be great for us to build on over the break.”
The Dogies have three more opportunities to improve their game this week. On Thursday, they will travel to Sundance to take on the Bulldogs in the first contest of the Stateline Shootout. On Friday Belle Fourche comes to town for a 7:30 tipoff, and the weekend will round out with Newcastle hosting the Lead Golddiggers on Saturday at 5:15.