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PAGE 11
March 12, 2015
)t Springs 41
Hullett 'A' Team 26
Team
ght 37
39, Upton 45
9gies
Last weekend I made the
trek to nearby Rawlins
watch the Dogies and Lady
ies in the 3A East Regional
Tournament. As a has-
morn and fan, I had been
forward to the post-season
all year and was anxious to
how it turned out and hopeful
my kids' teams would extend
seasons another week.
As I wrote last week I had
adalyzed the possible scenarios,
aim felt pretty good about the
girls' chances of making it past
the weekend, but knew that they
would have to play well in order
to" move on to State.
I also knew that the boys had
aypretty rough road and would
have to face some daunting com-
petition in an elite 3A conference.
I-k)wever, I was still hopeful.
• ?. I must admit that my attempt
at, bracketology with the girls'
tQurnament was an utter failure
a there were some big upsets that
threw a monkey wrench into my
senario of how things would pan
out, but I will say that I was pretty
Close with my admittedly vague
predictions regarding the boys'
bracket.
At any rate, the two teams did
not get the outcome that they and
their fans were hoping for, they
'\\; crtainly did the school and the
Community proud with the fight
tfiey put up in their respective
contests.
I borrow a phrase that I read in
apreview. document that Rawlins
put together about each team com-
lting vhen I say that our two
squads went into the tournament
as the "Under-Dogies". Each held
tl4e fourth seed position so were
faced with having to take on the
two Rawlins squads who were the
• number one
teams from
the south-
east quad-
rant in their
first round
of play and
do it on their
• ,. Sonia Kup home court.
Karpe Ogle Between
these two
Rawlins teams, they had accumu-
lalted only five losses the entire
season, so we knew that we were
going to have to put together a
flawless game in order to come
om on top.
Given this situation, it might
be pretty easy to just look at the
tk as hopeless and give up, but
I am proud to say that neither
team did that. The girls and the
bys gave everything they had
acd didn't stop fighting until the
fitnal buzzer. I believe that says a
great deal about the character of
oar kids.
- With both teams facing a
loser-out situation for their second
game, and knowing that they were
Ce again "Under-Dogies" up
inst teams that they had yet to
ViCtorious over, it would have
en understandable to see some
idence of lackluster effort on
part of the Dogies. But that
tas not the case.
Regrettably, the boys dug
emselves a hole early, so even
1
|
q -- See Karp, Page 16
News Letter Journal
:A rough road for the Dogies
Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
The Dogies knew they had a tough road as
they headed to Rawlins for the 3A East Regional
Tournament last weekend, Thursday and Friday,
March 5 and 6.
Going in to the tournament, the Dogies were the
four seed from the Northeast quadrant so were up
against the number one Rawlins Outlaws for their first
round, and to add to the challenge, Newcastle had to
play this talented opponent on their home court.
"It's a tough place to play, and Rawlins is a good
basketball team which we knew going in," com-
mented head coach Allen Von Eye.
The boys' game was the last of the evening on
Thursday, and it followed the Lady Dogie-Lady
Outlaw matchup so the Outlaws were playing in
front of a jacked up, packed house full of home town
fans, and in the first quarter the team really seemed
to feed off that tangible energy.
Rawlins poured on their offensive game right
from the start, and the Dogies struggled to find an
answer, so found themselves down 9-29 at the end
of the first quarter.
The quarter break gave Newcastle an opportunity
to catch their breath and regroup, and they came out
in the second quarter bringing an offensive attack
of their own scoring 14 points to 15 by Rawlins.
However, having put themselves in the hole by 20
points in the first quarter, they still faced a daunting
21 point deficit to go into the half.
"I thought that we attacked the basket much better
than we had when we saw them earlier in the season,
and With the exception of that first quarter, I thought
we played pretty well," Von Eye emphasized.
The Dogies kept fighting in the second half
giving blow-for-blow with the.number one team, but
were not able to overcome the point spread so ended
up losing their first round 42-70.
"In the last three quarters, Rawlins only outscored
us by eight, which is a pretty good basketball game,"
Von Eye stated. "However, when you dig yourself a
20 point hole in the first quarter, it's hard to come
back against a team of this caliber," he admitted. "
Taylor Allen made a statement in his return to the
floor for the Dogies by leading the team in scoring
with 18 points and he brought down a rebound,
added an assist, a steal and a block to fill up all
categories in the stat book.
Allen was followed by Dillon Ehlers who poured
in 15 points and grabbed six rebounds while adding
four assists. Mason Pisciotti contributed seven points
and four rebounds, and Triston Roberson rounded
out the scoring with two points and two rebounds.
The loss on Thursday. meant that the Dogies
would be matched up against the Buffalo Bison in
the loser-out game on Friday. During the season
Newcastle lost to this team twice, so were deter-
mined to come out on top in their third matchup of
the season, however, Buffalo was equally determined
to be victorious in this pivotal game.
"Buffalo is a fast, athletic team so we knew we
were going to have to take care of the basketball if
we wanted to be successful," noted Von Eye.
The Dogies got off to another slow offensive start
while the Bison hit the floor running, so at the end of
the first quarter the home team was down 8-17.
The second quarter seemed to be the big one
for Newcastle over the weekend. Just like the day
before, it was much stronger for the team. Buffalo
only outscored the squad by five points but were able
to extend their lead to 14 points to into the half up
35-21 over the Dogies.
Unfortunately, the second half was disastrous
for the Dogies and it seemed as though the Bison
just couldn't miss as they outscored Von Eye's boys
26-7 to blow the game wide open by the end of the
-- See Mens Hoops, Page 16
Sonja Karp/NLJ
Colton Sweet looks to feed the ball inside in
the final game of his career against the Buffalo
Bison.
Lady Dogies leave it all on the floor
Sonja Karp/NLJ
Scottlyn Wiggins drives to the hoop against the Lady Warriors of Worland.
Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
then Rawlins got their feet back under
them and went into the locker room
with a ten point lead over the Lady
Dogies, 28-18.
"I thought we did a nice job of
battling and in the first half they
were panicking a little bit. I thought
we put the pressure on them and was
pleased that we held them to only 28
points," Bartlett reasoned. "I would
have liked to see us put up more than
18 points, but I thought we did a nice
job of executing our game plan," he
continued.
Unfortunately for the Lady Dogies,
Rawlins continued with their scoring
ways in the second half. Though
Newcastle was able to get within seven
points a couple of times throughout
the remainder of the contest, the Lady
Outlaws always countered whatever
run the squad would get going, to pull
ahead a little farther each time.
In the end, the Lady Dogies dropped
their tournament opener 40-61.
"A couple of things happened
that cost us the game really," Bartlett
began. "You can't game plan to keep
[Quriss] Romero under control and
then turn the ball over to her as
that plays right into her forte. Then
[Aubrey] Jennings scored 19 points
which was probably her best game of
the season, but credit to her for step-
ping up," he finished.
The 3A East Regional Basketball
Tournament in Rawlins marked the
end of the Lady Dogies' 2014-2015
season, which was one weekend earlier
than the team had hoped. Though they
were looking forward to punching
their ticket to the State Tournament, it
was not to be.
On Thursday, March 5 the ladies
opened up post-season play as they
faced the number one Rawlins Lady
Outlaws on their home court, who came
into the tournament with a 6-0 confer-
ence record and were 19-1 overall.
"Going in against the number one
team, on the road and at their house
was definitely a tough draw. No one
from the North wanted to go into the
tournament facing Rawlins right off
the bat, but it landed on us," sighed
head coach Tyler Bartlett.
The offensive game had a slow
start• for both teams, with the score at
only 2-4 in favor of the Outlaws with
a little over four minutes to play in the
first quarter, but then Rawlins turned
up their defensive pressure to close it
out up 15-6 over the Lady Dogies.
In the second quarter, Newcastle
warmed up offensively and closed the
gap to only three points with two and
a half minutes to play in the half, but
The team did many good things
during the game, and played better
than the scoreboard reflected, but their
opponent was firing on all cylinders
and proved to be just too much for
:Newcastle. ",: :,
Alyssa :Dae team
in scoring wi00#00nt00 and she
nabbed a double-double, pulling down
10 rebounds. Abby Gray was next
with 10 points and two rebounds,
followed by Scottlyn Wiggins, with
six points and one rebound, while
Rachel Henkle had four points and led
in rebounding with 11. Bailey Karp
scored two points, but performed
well in other categories grabbing nine
rebounds and racking up six blocks on
the Lady Outlaws. Abi Deveraux and
Kendra Back rounded out the scoring
for the team with two points and two
rebounds each.
"Rawlins is a talented team, having
only lost one game all season. We
executed our game plan the way we
wanted to, but they had a couple of
players who stepped up and made
us pay, so it is what it is," Bartlett
concluded.
The loss meant that the Lady
Dogies would be facing a loser-out
situation on Friday morning, March 6.
Lady Luck was not playing nice
with the home team as on the other side
of the bracket there was an upset with
the number three Wheatland Lady
Bulldogs pulling out a win over the
number two Worland Lady Warriors
on the opening day of competition.
Historically, Worland has had
Newcastle's number, so this was not
necessarily the situation the team
wanted to find themselves in this do-
or-die scenario, but the Lady Dogies
came out ready to play.
The Lady Warriors jumped out
to a 5-0 lead early in the game, but
the Lady Dogies got into the groove
of things to keep the score close, but
were down 6-9 to end the first quarter.
The second quarter was a barn-
burner for the fans as the two teams
battled back-and-forth for the lead that
saw two ties and four lead changes
with Newcastle going up six points late
in the quarter, but then the Warriors
rallied back to go into the half up
31-26 over the Lady Dogies.
"What's frustrating to me is at the
end ofthefirst half, welwcre up r
,-and Aly, ssa takes ,a good ;threepiat i
shot that does all but,rattle in. Ifsl
would have made that shot, we would
have gone up nine, but instead they got
a long rebound and scored in transi-
tion starting an 11-0 run to put us
down five going into the half. That's
just tough," Bartlett sighed.
Sonja Karp/NLJ
Bailey Karp makes a move to the
basket drawing a foul against the
Lady Outlaws of Rawlins.
-- See Ladies Hoops, Page 16
SlO0 Each
Farnsworth Services
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1124 Washington Blvd. Newcastle WY 82701 [ www.wchs-wy.org
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