Bulldogs overcome Wheatland slowdown game to reach title game

It’s an offense that can be kind of like watching paint dry, and calling it deliberate is putting it mildly, but Wheatland’s methodical offense has worked well for the Platte County squad for the most part in recent years– until they fall behind.

Indeed, the Wheatland Bulldogs were no match for the Lovell Bulldogs, who ran away from Wheatland in the first half and cruised to a 45-29 win in the semifinals of the Class 3A State Basketball Tournament Friday night at Casper College.

The two teams were tied at just 2-2 five minutes into the first quarter as fans no doubt were muttering under their breath, but Jace Nicholls scored on a zip pass from Davin Crosby and Matthew Newman converted a Nicholls steal for two points, putting Lovell up 6-2. Center Ayden Lind scored for Wheatland, but a jumper by Owen Walker for Lovell ignited a 15-0 run that left the shellshocked Eastern Wyoming Bulldogs down 21-4 midway through the second quarter.

Walker scored 6 points during the outburst, Newman 5, including a pretty head and shoulder fake where he put a Wheatland defender in the popcorn machine, as the legendary Chick Hearn would say, for a bucket, foul and free throw.

Wheatland finally ended a six-minute drought with a baseline jumper, but Lovell went on to lead 24-8 at halftime.

“When you play Wheatland, as a coach you’re a little nervous about the way they want to play because they want to sit on the ball,” Lovell coach Shane Durtsche said, “so our plan was, let’s take the game to them. We need to pressure them, see if we can speed them up. We thought that with our athletic ability, our length and the way we play defense, they would not have seen that this year. They can’t simulate our team (in practice). So the plan was, let’s just play man-to-man, trapping, full-court defense, speed them up, and we were just confident that we could rattle them with that because they are disciplined. Once they break half court, it’s hard.

“They’re really good at what they do, but we wanted to play what we call heat, which means we jump all ball screens and trap them, and we wanted to jump and trap dribble handoffs, just make it difficult on them. We just wanted to speed it up with full-court pressure.”

After seeing Wheatland beat Powell to the basket time and time again the evening before with back door cuts, Durtsche said the Bulldogs worked hard to put pressure on Wheatland super sophomores Tate Nichols and Jacob Miller and use help side defense on cuts to the basket. Coaches also instructed center Walker to hedge high to stop the dribble, then drop back to help in the paint.

The Bulldogs continued to pull away in the third quarter, outscoring Wheatland 16-8 to lead 40-16 after three, forcing six turnovers in the quarter while just having one themselves. Unable to score in their regular offense, the Wheatland Bulldogs turned to three-pointers in the fourth quarter and hit three of them while outscoring Lovell 13-5 as Durtsche again cleared the bench to make the final score 45-29.

Durtsche said the Bulldogs played a complete game and were more relaxed with a win under their belt and playing at Casper College.

Lovell shot 51.3 percent from the field in the game, Wheatland 36.7 percent. Lovell scored 25 points off 16 Wheatland turnovers.

Walker led the Bulldogs with 15 points and 10 rebounds, hitting seven of 11 shots from the field. Kaeson Anderson added 11 points on four-of-five shooting, Newman 9 points.

The win boosted the Bulldogs to 25-2 and set up Saturday’s championship game against Cody.

LOVELL (45)

Matthew Newman 4 1-1 9, Robert Romero 0 0-0 0, Jace Nicholls 2 0-0 4, Owen Edwards 2 0-0 4, Owen Walker 7 0-0 15, Kaeson Anderson 4 1-2 11, Davin Crosby 1 0-0 2, Sam Mayes 0 0-0 0, Cash Wassmer 0 0-0 0, James Blau 0 0-0 0, Brody Muller 0 0-0 0, Kyle Wilson 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 2-3 45.

WHEATLAND (29)

Kaycee Metz 1 0-0 2, Nolan Schaffner 0 2-2 2, Cayden Neely 3 0-0 8, Tate Nichols 5 1-2 13, Jacob Miller 0 0-0 0, Kaed Coates 0 0-0 0, Jacob Hyche 2 0-0 4, Kenny Raser 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 3-4 29.

Lovell 13    11    16      5 – 45

Wheatland   4      4      8    13 – 29

Three-point field goals – Anderson 2, Walker 1; Neely 2, Nichols 2. Fouled out – none. Total fouls – Lovell 8, Wheatland 9.