Streaking Bulldogs beat Lyman and Mountain View on the road

Continuing to gun for the playoffs, the top-ranked Lovell Bulldogs won their 10th and 11th games in a row over the weekend on the road, clobbering Lyman 70-40 Friday and Mountain View 61-37 Saturday.

Now 9-0 atop the 3A West Conference standings and 19-2 overall, the Bulldogs will conclude the conference season at rival Powell tonight (Thursday), meeting the Panthers at 4 (JV) and 7 p.m.

Though still a bit shorthanded with senior center Kyle Wilson recovering from an earlier ankle injury, the Bulldogs had no problem with either foe on the weekend, head coach Shane Durtsche said, though there were some lulls.

“It’s a long road trip, but we took care of business,” Durtsche said. “I didn’t love either game, David, but I’m also real. We have super high expectations, but you take that long road trip, and there’s a little bit of a lull getting off that bus. We didn’t start very fast against Lyman, and it took us a while to get our legs under us. And then we kind of took control in the second and third quarters.”

Lyman

Durtsche said the Bulldogs actually jumped out early against Lyman Friday but let the Eagles back into the game and led by just one after the first quarter, 16-15.

“We came out and ran kind of a run-and-jump press, just to work on it a little bit and get us going,” he said. “We started out really well, and then they adjusted to it. And we also got a little lax a couple of times and gave up some easy ones.

“We ran a decent amount of our 1-3-1 after that, and that was very effective against them. We created some turnovers, and they took some quick shots. Our kids did a pretty good job in that second quarter.”

Lovell outscored Lyman 19-9 in the second to lead 35-24 at halftime. Lovell then won the third quarter 20-8 and the fourth 15-8 to pull away and win by 30. Durtsche said he cleared the bench with about 3½ minutes left in the game.

“We did a little bit of trapping in the half court, too, and man to man there in the second half. We wanted to look at that a little bit, so we messed with some stuff,” the coach noted.

Though hitting just four of 21 shots from three-point range, the Bulldogs shot 42 percent overall and hit 22 of 29 free-throw attempts. They outrebounded Lyman 39-12.

“The interesting thing is, they’ve got some decent size. Their lineup actually matches up with us fairly decent,” Durtsche said. “They’ve got some length and some young kids coming up, and, yeah, we just really hammered them on the boards, and that’s without Kyle.

“Now we were a little careless with the ball (17 turnovers), as you can see. They were really aggressive coming in and kind of hanging around. If we’d get a rebound it was instant trap. We were a little weak with the ball a few times and made some lackadaisical passes, especially early in the game.”

Senior Owen Walker had a monster game with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Owen Edwards added 13 points, Kaeson Anderson 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Matthew Newman tallied 11 points, five rebounds and three assists, Jaxen Clark and Sam Mayes 6 points each, Brody Muller 2 points.

Mountain View

Saturday’s game at Mountain View was similar except that the Bulldogs were dominant in the first half, then settled back a bit in the second half. Lovell led 15-7 after one, then outscored the Buffalos 21-8 in the second quarter to lead 36-15 at intermission as Edwards fired in 9 points in the quarter, Newman 7.

Lovell outscored Mountain View by just three points in the second half, 25-22, to win 61-37.

“I was OK with our first half, and I was not very pleased with our second half,” Durtsche said. “We got that lead and kind of got a little lackadaisical, showed a little lackluster effort in that second half. It was just ugly. I told the kids I hadn’t had that bad a taste since that Worland game at home when we kind of let off the gas. It’s similar.

“We kind of got a little stagnant offensively against Mountain View, maybe didn’t share the ball in the second half the way I would have liked to have seen it, and they hit some shots.”

Edwards led the team with 18 points, hitting six of nine shots from the field, and he had five steals, as well. Newman was also strong with 14 points, five rebounds and seven assists, and Walker finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Anderson added 12 points, four rebounds and five assists, Cash Wassmer 4 points.

Finale at Powell

The Bulldogs will travel to Powell (13-7, 2-6) tonight for the final game of the regular season. Lovell beat Powell 68-37 at home on January 29, but Durtsche isn’t overlooking the Panthers.

“For me, it’s just, ‘Let’s get better. This is our last tune-up before the tournament,’” he said. “We know Powell is a dangerous team. They’ve lost some here lately, but sometimes that can mean a really scary team. They really want to win a game or two this weekend to help their seeding in the tournament.

“One thing with our kids and this group, especially when it comes to Powell, is that I don’t have to say too much. These guys like playing Powell, and they’ll be up for Powell. They’ve become gamers, and they’re going to be ready to play Powell.”

Durtsche said he expected Wilson to practice this week and hopes to work him into the game at Powell.

“We’d love to run the table and stay hot going into the tournament. That’s definitely a goal,” Durtsche said.

Class 3A West Standings

Lovell 19-2, 9-0

Cody 8-12, 5-3

Pinedale 12-8, 5-4

Lander 12-8, 4-5

Worland 9-12, 4-5

Lyman 10-8, 3-5

Powell 13-7, 2-6

Mtn. View 8-11, 2-6