­Champions – the Bulldogs won it the right way

It was a remarkable sight Saturday evening when the Lovell Bulldogs won their 10^th boys basketball state championship with a 44-40 nail-biter over conference rival Cody – hundreds of blue-clad fans standing, roaring and exulting with the boys from the Rose Town of Wyoming at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper.

A state title is a special event in any sport or activity for a school, and in a small town like Lovell, the crown seems especially rewarding considering the discrepancy in size between formerly Class 4A Cody and much smaller Lovell. It was a true David vs. Goliath matchup.

And the title was no fluke. The Bulldogs rolled to a 26-2 record this season and defeated all of the top five ranked 3A schools, some more than once. Lovell defeated Cody, certainly one of the top two teams in the state, three times this year: once in Lovell, once for the regional championship in Lander and Saturday in the state title game in Casper. This title was no fluke.

Coach Shane Durtsche deserves tremendous credit for building a program over three years that is among the best of the best, and while a team has to have talent to win it all – which the Bulldogs have – it also has to have great team chemistry. We’ve all seen teams with great talent that simply don’t mesh as egos get in the way.

Not so this team. The Bulldogs appeared to truly want the best for each other and were willing to do whatever it took to win, sacrificing individual statistics and accolades if need be. They played unselfish ball, relishing a great pass or a key steal as much as scoring a basket. The players didn’t appear to care who got the credit, as long as they put a check mark in the win column.

Now certainly a team must be able to score in order to win, but in the case of Lovell, all five starters could score in double figures on a given night, with more firepower coming off the bench. Great balance was the hallmark of this winning team.

But what really set the Bulldogs apart was their willingness to lock in on defense. It’s no secret that defense wins championships in almost any sport, and this team had the ability to almost totally shut an opponent down, a great example being the three games the Bulldogs played at the state tournament where they held the Douglas Bearcats to 29 points under their season scoring average, the Wheatland Bulldogs to 15 points under their season average and the Cody Broncs to 18 points under their average.

This is a testament to Coach Durtsche and his staff for developing a winning culture in the program. The Bulldogs won it all at the 3A level for the first time since 1979, when the division was called Class A, and after a 21-win season a year ago, the Bulldogs were ranked number one nearly from start to finish and had a target on their back. That’s pressure, and the Bulldogs more than met the challenge.

Hats off to the players, coaches, support staff and the community at large, which turned out in droves to support this team. Winning a state title is special, and winning a title in Class 3A is huge. Enjoy this one, Lovell. Relish the moment.