Bulldogs use defense to capture state 3A title

No one expected game number four against the Cody Broncs to be easy, especially with a state championship on the line, and it certainly wasn’t as the Lovell Bulldogs battled the Broncs for the state Class 3A crown Saturday afternoon at the Ford Wyoming Center.

The game was close from the opening tipoff, and in the end, the Bulldogs proved the old adage that defense wins championships as they held Cody 20 points under the Broncs’ scoring average to win 44-40 and win the school’s 10th state championship in boys basketball.

The Bulldogs came into the game riding a nine-game winning streak, their last loss being to the Broncs in Cody on Valentine’s Day, 60-48, but they had also defeated the Broncs 38-33 in Lovell in January and clobbered Cody for the 3A West regional title in Lander one week prior to the state title game, 49-36.

This one was different. While Lovell led Cody a week earlier by up to 17 points, Lovell’s largest lead Saturday was six points in the fourth quarter, and Cody’s largest margin was five, twice in the first half.

Early scoring in the title game came from an unexpected source in senior forward Davin Crosby, an all-state football player who is known for his rebounding and defense but not his scoring. But Crosby drained two three-pointers in the first quarter as the Bulldogs forged a two-point lead, 11-9.

Cody came on strong in the second quarter and scored the first six points of the period to lead 15-11 as senior center Madax Ball scored twice inside. Kaeson Anderson drilled a three-pointer for the Bulldogs to cut the lead to one, but Cody kept coming and led by five points twice, 19-14 and 21-16 before baskets by Owen Walker and Jace Nicholls kept Lovell close as Cody led 21-20 at halftime.

“I thought they had a nice game plan,” Lovell coach Shane Durtsche said of the Broncs. “They were trying to make our shots difficult, and I could tell they were trying to take Kaeson away a little bit. He’s been shooting so well from three. They definitely did a better job of trying to slow down our transition, whereas at the regional game we got out and got some of those fast-break points off of our stops and rebounds.

“But I thought the biggest thing is that they crashed their offensive rebounds much harder than they did at Regionals; they kept the ball. We didn’t do as good a job defensive rebounding, and that’s when we can go. And so we didn’t get a lot of those transition points, like off of rebounds. I thought they did a little bit better job of knocking us off of our cuts and screens. They did a really good job clogging up the middle and dropping down on Owen. When he caught it, they helped right away.”

On the other end of the court, the Broncs set screens to free up leading scorer Grady McCarten and also get Ball involved, but the quick Bulldogs got several stops and steals to thwart numerous Cody scoring attempts.

With the Bulldogs down 23-22 early in the third quarter, three players scored back-to-back buckets to help the Bulldogs retake the lead, despite treys by the McCarten brothers, Grady and Griff. Newman executed a pretty baseline move and hook and scored on a flying fast break after a Cody turnover. Then Anderson drained back-to-back treys, the second answering a Griff McCarten bomb. Finally, Nicholls slashed down the lane for two, then hit a spinning jump shot.

Lovell led 36-33 after the third quarter.

Crunch time

The Bulldogs buckled down on defense in the fourth quarter, allowing just two baskets and three free throws. Newman zoomed the court for fast-break baskets that put Lovell up 41-35 with four minutes to play, but after a successful steal on one Cody possession, Newman flew past Grady McCarten the next time down the floor on a steal attempt, leaving the senior wide open for a trey, which he hit, cutting the Lovell lead in half, 41-38, with 2½ minutes to play. Cody called a time out.

Durtsche said while he appreciated Newman’s effort on the steal attempt, he knew the Broncs were having difficulty scoring if not left wide open. He also urged his team to hit the boards.

“Our message in that time out was, ‘Hey, they can’t score on us right now,’” Durtsche said. “Those guys are big and strong, and they’re going to get some offensive rebounds, but we were like, ‘You guys have got to box out and rebound, because they can’t score right now. They’re only going to score on offensive rebounds.’”

After an exchange of turnovers, Durtsche called time out with 1:30 left, and Cody fouled four consecutive times to force Lovell to the free-throw line. And it almost worked as the Bulldogs missed nine free throws in the last minute.

Walker missed two with 58 seconds left, and after Grady McCarten missed a trey, Anderson snagged the rebound, was fouled and hit one of two at the line, which put Lovell up 42-38 with 29 seconds left.

After Nathaniel Pryor scored for Cody, the Broncs fouled Newman. The junior missed the first and swished the second, but as he shot the second free throw, the referees whistled Cody for having six men on the court. The referees nullified the made free throw and sent Newman to the line again, where he missed the second free throw this time.

Anderson hit one of the two technical foul free throws to put Lovell up 43-40, and due to the tech, Lovell kept the ball, and Newman was fouled with 16 seconds left. He hit one of two to make the score 44-40, and after Grady McCarten missed another three-pointer, the Broncs fouled Nicholls, who missed both free throws with seven seconds left. But the senior made up for it, tipping an ensuing Cody pass to Newman, who passed to Nicholls. The senior flung the ball high into the air as Lovell players and coaches swarmed the court.

In the end, defense was the key. Cody shot just 35 percent from the field and 21 percent from three-point range (4-19).

“We just really focused on helping on the screens, keeping them in front, and if they’re gonna hit a shot with a hand up and toughly contested, we live with that,” Durtsche said. “You tip your cap to them, because sometimes that can happen. But we were just really doing a good job of talking, helping, and we started switching a few of those screens, because we have a lot of guys that can card different positions. I guess, more than anything, we just really focused on staying focused, I guess. And that’s how good these kids can be defensively.”

And even though the team was nervously missing some free throws (3-12 down the stretch), Durtsche said he never really felt the game was in jeopardy, because of the defense.

“As close as that game was down the stretch, as well as we were playing defense, and the lack of flow Cody had, I always knew we were OK, if that makes sense,” he said.

Newman led the Bulldogs with 12 points and three steals, and Anderson added 11 points, Nicholls 8 points, eight rebounds and four assists, Crosby 8 points and Walker 5 points and eight rebounds.

Durtsche said he was incredibly impressed, once again, by the number people who made the trip from Lovell to support the team. He said he and Gillette coach Bubba Hladky are old friends, and Hladky told him at one point, “Holy cow, I can’t believe how many people from Lovell are here. … Man, the following you have, and then to see all these little kids here, and they’re dreaming of this.”

“And I agree,” Durtsche said. “That’s what I remember growing up. We were in the state tournament every year, it seemed like. That matters. The amount of support and the people who fill the seats at home games, and I’m talking people that don’t have kids playing, just drive to the games.

“And the amount of people who came out to welcome us to town at midnight, are you kidding me? That’s special, it truly is.”

The Bulldogs finished the season 26-2 and will lose four players to graduation: Crosby, Nicholls, Robert Romero and James Blau.

LOVELL (44)

Matthew Newman 5 2-6 12, Robert Romero 0 0-0 0, Jace Nicholls 3 2-4 8, Owen Edwards 0 0-0 0, Owen Walker 2 1-4 5, Kaeson Anderson 3 2-4 11, Davin Crosby 3 0-0 8. Totals 16 7-18 44.

CODY (40)

Maddax Ball 3 5-6 11, Nathanial Pryor 0 0-0 0, Chase Hatch 4 0-2 8, Jaxon Hazel 1 1-2 3, Grady McCarten 5 0-0 12, Parker Hein 0 0-0 0, Griff McCarten 2 0-0 6. Totals 15 6-10 40.

Lovell 11      9    16    8 – 44

Cody   9    12    12    7 – 40

Three-point field goals – Anderson 3, Crosby 2; Grady McCarten 2, Griff McCarten 2. Fouled out – none. Total fouls – Lovell 9, Cody 16.