Bulldogs win two to advance to championship game

The Lovell Bulldogs made quick work of a pair of opponents en route to the state championship game last week at the State Class 3A Basketball Tournament in Casper.

Thursday, they dispatched 3A East fourth seed Buffalo 80-57, and they crushed East second seed Torrington 81-33 Friday night in the semifinals.

The Bulldogs began defense of their state title with a significant, though far from easy, win over the Buffalo Bison Thursday evening at the Ford Wyoming Center.

Offense wasn’t a problem for the Bulldogs, who had plenty of offensive firepower. But though the Bison hit only 25 percent of their shots from the field, they did drain 10 three-points, shooting 38 times from downtown compared to Lovell’s 15 shots from beyond the arc, five of which connected.

“We knew that Buffalo wants to spread you out and try to create open three-pointers,” Lovell head coach Shane Durtsche noted. “They had won the regular season conference championship, so we knew they were a dangerous team. We wanted to try to utilize our size mismatches and work the ball inside, play an inside-out game.”

Lovell jumped out to a 10-1 lead and then built it to 15-3 as senior Owen Walker scored 12 of the first 15 points of the game on strong drives, fast-break buckets and follow shots, splashing a three-pointer from the top of the key for good measure. Owen Edwards also hit a trey during the initial run. Lovell edged Buffalo 8-7 the rest of the quarter to lead 23-10 after one.

Buffalo never gave up, however, and outscored Lovell 38-35 over the next two quarters to trim the deficit to 10 after three, 58-48, hitting nine three-pointers in the process. Senior Matthew Newman was on fire for the Bulldogs, scoring 16 points in the two quarters to hold Buffalo at bay. Walker added 7 points, including a follow dunk off a Buffalo turnover, Edwards 5, Kyle Wilson 4 and Sam Mayes 3.

Buffalo’s 12th trey of the game cut the Lovell lead to 58-51 in the opening moments of the fourth quarter, and after an inside bank shot by Walker, the Bison made it 60-53 as Luken Smith lofted a shot over Lovell’s bigs. But the Bulldogs launched a 13-0 run to put the game away as Edwards drilled a trey and Walker completed a three-point play and hammered down his second dunk of the game. Lovell led 73-53 and went on to win 80-57.

“That first game at State is always scary and especially at the events center (Ford Wyoming Center),” Durtsche said. “The kids played well overall, and Owen Walker had a monster game. Buffalo got hot for a stretch and made it interesting, but the kids responded and closed them out. We scored 80 points, and Kaeson (Anderson) only scored 1 point, which says a lot about how explosive we can be.”

Lovell out-shot Buffalo 54 percent to 25 percent and won the battle of the boards 49-29, but 18 turnovers and Buffalo’s 10 treys kept the score closer that it could have been. Strong foul shooting helped the Lovell cause, as well, as the Bulldogs hit 25 of 32 shots from the foul line, 78 percent.

Walker had a monster game, finishing with 30 points on 12-of-14 shooting and 15 rebounds. Newman added 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, Edwards 16 points and six boards. Mayes scored 7 points, Wilson 4, Brody Muller 2 and Anderson 1. Anderson got in foul trouble and shot poorly, going 0-5, but he played great defense against Buffalo leading scorer Hayden Geis, who came into the game averaging 14.8 points per game but was held to 6 points on 1-of-8 shooting.

Jace Townsend scored 20 points for Buffalo, Johnny Rosalez 16, each hitting four treys.

The win improved the Bulldogs to 24-2 and advanced them to a semifinal game Friday night against Torrington.

Lovell 81, Torrington 33

Torrington had defeated a talented Lander team 51-43 in the opening round Thursday and beat Wheatland 61-50 Saturday to place third, but the Trailblazers were no match for the Bulldogs Friday night at Casper College.

The game was tied once, 2-2, and the rest of the game was all Lovell. A put-back and drive by Anderson around a follow jumper in the key and transition trey by Edwards fueled a 9-0 run that put the Bulldogs up 11-2 early. The two teams traded baskets for a spell, but the Bulldogs finished the quarter with a 6-0 mini run to lead 24-11 at the quarter break.

Five different players scored in the second quarter led by Walker with 7 and Edwards 6 as the Bulldogs pulled away 20-9 to lead 44-20 at halftime. Walker scored 13 points in the half, Edwards 11 including three-of-three shooting from beyond the arc and Anderson 10.

Lovell widened the gap further in the third quarter, outscoring the Trailblazers 20-9 to lead 64-29 with one quarter to play. Edwards continued his hot shooting, scoring 8 points including two more treys.

The Bulldogs continued to pour it on in the fourth quarter as Durtsche cleared his bench, outscoring Torrington 17-3 to win by 48 points, 81-33.

“We knew Torrington matched up pretty well with us size wise, but we wanted Kyle to be physical with their big kid (6-9 Kaleb Booth) and meet him high and outside the paint and keep him out there,” Durtsche said. “Kaeson did a great job on number 23 (Julian Stromski), and we played a great game, maybe our best of the season on Friday night. Owen Edwards hit five of six threes.

“We were clicking on all cylinders and dominated them. What a great environment on semifinal night at the college.”

Edwards led the Bulldogs with 19 points on seven-of-nine shooting, and Walker and Anderson joined him in double figures with 18 and 15 points, respectively. Newman added 8 points, Mayes and Wilson 6 each, Cash Wassmer 5, Jaxen Clark and Joaquin Scheeler 2 apiece.

Point guard Newman pulled down nine rebounds, Walker eight, Clark five and Edwards, Scheeler and Wilson four apiece. Newman tallied four assists, Anderson three. Walker led with three steals.

Lovell shot 55 percent from the field, 45 percent from three-point range. Torrington shot 27.7 percent from the field, 14.3 percent from downtown (4-28). Lovell out-rebounded Torrington 45-21.