Dogies close out preseason schedule

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The growth curve for head coach Allen Von Eye’s Dogie basketball team has been steep, and though the squad is heading into the Christmas break without a notch in the win column, over the course of
their first four games the improvements the inexperienced squad has shown has been impressive.
“We have grown incredibly already in the four ball games we have played so far this season. Our defense was much better and we did some really good things,” Von Eye nodded. “Our help side still needs some work, but we have been doing a lot of different things defensively, so we’re not really good at anything yet. It’s early enough in the season, so I’m confident that we’ll get there.”
In their home opener on Thursday, the Dogies knew they were up against a solid basketball team in Sundance who came into the Dome with a great deal of experience. Though the Bulldogs fell from third to sixth in the 2A polls last week, they were still coming in pretty loaded.
“Sundance has played a lot of basketball games together as a team, so we knew they would be a challenge,” Von Eye began. “But I was really happy with the way our guys played because they went hard and really battled for the
whole game.”
The Dogies started the contest off strong on defense, and aggressive on the offensive end, so much so that they quickly accumulated six offensive fouls incurred from attacking the rim. However, by the end of the first quarter the score was tight with Sundance holding a slim three-point lead.
“I knew they were going to try to take a ton of charges,” Von Eye admitted. “At first I thought the calls were a little questionable, but after looking at the film they were all pretty legit.”
In the second quarter, the Bulldogs went on a little bit of a run hitting four threes to end the half up 32-20.
“We did a pretty good job of defending them everywhere but left them a few open looks from the outside,” Von Eye began. “We also didn’t rebound the ball very well, and that’s been an Achilles Heel for us. I know we’re small but we have to keep teams off the glass if we’re going to give ourselves a chance.”
After coming out of the locker room the Dogies battled with the Bulldogs for the remainder of the contest, matching them point for point to finish it out down 51-63.
“We shot the ball better, and though we were a little quick-triggered offensively in the beginning of the first half, we settled in and did some good things in the second half,” Von Eye insisted. “We have really stressed moving the ball and when we get to the third or fourth reversal, we’ll start to attack. I was really proud of us because we had several possessions in a row that were really good basketball.”
Aidan Chick was his team’s leading scorer finishing the night with 19 points. Of those, nine points came from beyond the arc, and he went 6-6 from the line after being fouled on two three-point attempts. Zach Purviance was close behind with 14 points, Tate Engle and Quint Perino each added five points while Avery Chick and Christian Santos both contributed four to the team’s final score. 
The squad took what they learned from the Sundance contest into their game against Laramie on Saturday. The 4A Plainsmen were bigger, faster and deeper than Newcastle, and were coming off a decisive win over Jackson on Friday. 
“The growth we showed on Thursday definitely carried over to Saturday, and I know that the score doesn’t indicate that, but in all honesty, we were definitely the underdogs,” Von Eye determined. “We actually played a lot better than what showed up on the scoreboard.”
The Dogies started out the game in a 2-3 zone defense in order to try to defend Laramie’s big inside presence, and though Von Eye was pleased with the defense the team played, he admitted that playing a zone may have contributed to rebounding woes in the first half.
“I was really happy with our zone, but we didn’t box out in it,” he sighed. “We’d force them into some difficult shots like we wanted to, but then they’d get two or three more opportunities at the rim and that makes it tough to win.
In the first half, the Dogies allowed the Plainsmen to get 18 offensive boards while Newcastle was only able to pull down two, thus giving Laramie 16 more opportunities to score. Unfortunately, Laramie was able to use those opportunities to go into the half up 28 points over the Dogies.
“In the second half, the kids played better. We went man-to-man exclusively and made some offensive tweaks which I think helped,” Von Eye began. “I thought the kids fought hard, and we didn’t back down from them. We attacked them hard and moved the ball well.”
However, Laramie just proved to be too much for the Dogies and by the end of the third quarter had increased their lead to 40, which instituted the mercy rule resulting in a running clock for the fourth quarter. 
With the remaining eight minutes, the Dogies matched them point for point to close out the contest with a 28-68 loss.
“The score really didn’t reflect how we played,” Von Eye reiterated. “I know it doesn’t show in the win/loss column and I’m not a moral victory kind of guy, but I also get that we are an inexperienced basketball team and it’s going to take a minute for us to figure each other out and we have really grown through the pre-Christmas schedule.”
Aidan Chick was once again the team’s leading scorer with eight points. He was followed by Tate Engle with seven, Landon Engle with six, Purviance and Santos with five apiece and Avery Chick and Gavin Gray with two each.
The Dogies will start 2021 with a trip to Worland on Monday, Jan. 4, to face off against what Von Eye described as the best team in 3A and probably about as good as several of the 4A teams in the state. They will follow that up by hosting the Torrington Trailblazers on Friday night at which time they will honor the senior players this season.
“We’ll be jumping right back into it when we come back,” Von Eye chuckled. “I told the guys that this is what we want, to play these teams that are going to challenge us in every single facet for 32 minutes because that is how we grow and how we get better. It’s a trial by fire, but we’re going to figure things out and it
will be good to get us ready for the conference season.”