Bulldogs bop Thermop, fall to Worland on buzzer-beater

As the regular season winds down, conference games are important, and the Lovell Bulldogs won one of two league games last weekend at home and on the road.
The Bulldogs defended Winterholler Gym Friday night as they clobbered the Thermopolis Bobcats 45-28, but they dropped a heartbreaker in Worland Saturday night, 42-41, on a three-point buzzer-beater.
With the split, the Bulldogs remain in second place in the 3A Northwest behind Powell with a 3-2 record.
Coach Shane Durtsche said the Bulldogs came out strong and took an early 12-point lead over the visiting Bobcats.
“We came out and pressured them from the start,” he said. “They’re not real disciplined with their decisions. We ran a full-court 1-2-2 press, and that got them scrambling. We came out with energy and went up 15-3. They weathered the storm a little bit and settled down, and we pulled the press off.”
Thermop trimmed the lead to six at the quarter break, 19-13, then Lovell edged the visitors 9-8 in the second quarter to lead 28-21 at halftime. Durtsche said the game wasn’t slow paced, but rather the teams played solid defense.
“They’re long and athletic and do a good job taking away penetration,” he said. “For us it was a matter of swinging the ball and looking for a good shot.”
Lovell outscored Thermop 10-2 in the third quarter and 7-5 in the fourth to win by 17, 45-28.
“Our defense was really good,” Durtsche said. “We did a good job contesting and making things difficult, shutting down driving lanes and holding them to one shot. It was a game we controlled from the tip.”
Lovell shot just 38 percent from the field but held Thermopolis to 23 percent shooting.
Matthew Newman led the Bulldogs with 17 points, hitting three of five shots from beyond the arc, and Owen Walker recorded a double-double, scoring 11 points and snaring 13 rebounds. He also blocked four shots. Blake Wilson scored 7 points, Parker Anderson 6 and Davin Crosby 4.
Battle in Worland
The Worland Warriors may be down (due to graduation losses), but they’re far from out as they demonstrated against the Bulldogs Saturday night. Worland led 10-6 after the first quarter, but a 15-4 second-quarter advantage left the Bulldogs up 21-14 at halftime. But just like the January 19 game in Lovell, when Worland outscored the Bulldogs 25-9 in the third quarter, the Warriors struck again Saturday, winning the third 20-7 to lead 34-28 after three.
“I didn’t like our defensive intensity. We were content,” Durtsche said. “We didn’t play with the kind of defensive intensity I like to see until about 3½ minutes left. Then we started playing with a sense of urgency.”
The Bulldogs found themselves down by three, 39-36, with two minutes left in the game following a Worland three-point play, but Walker made a key block and Newman hit one of two at the line. With just under a minute to play, freshman Kaeson Anderson stole the ball at midcourt and got the ball to Newman, who fed Davin Crosby for the tying basket with 49 seconds left.
Worland looked to take the lead, but with 20 seconds left, Kaeson again stole the ball and was tied up, but the possession arrow pointed to the Lovell end.
“He made big play after big play,” Durtsche said of the freshman.
Following a time out, Newman drove the lane, executed a jump stop, and after two defenders flew by, banked the ball in. Kaeson A stole the ensuing in-bound pass, but Worland was granted a time out with three seconds left. Worland set up a play and failed to get a shot off as time expired, but the timekeeper had started the clock too early, so referees allowed a do-over. This time Worland had plenty of time to execute a play, throwing the ball to Chase Harris at mid-court, who handed off to Bryan Caballero. Caballero flew to the three-point line with three dribbles, was confronted by the pilfer Kaeson, then rose and drained a three-pointer at the buzzer, giving Worland the win. It was three seconds that seemingly took forever.
“We wanted to foul on the catch, but we didn’t switch on a screen,” Durtsche said. “Kudos to Kaeson. He didn’t want to foul because we could get hit with three foul shots.”
Durtsche was philosophical after the game.
“I told the kids, ‘I’m competitive. We’re all ticked.’ But I’d rather take the loss now than in another couple of weeks (at Regionals),” he said. “The positive is that we fought back and took the lead. And it took a three at the buzzer to beat us. We showed toughness and resilience to put ourselves in a position to win the game.”
Walker finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, Newman 10 points and seven assists. Parker Anderson added 7 points and six boards, Crosby 6 points and four rebounds, Wilson 3 points and Kaeson Anderson 2 point and three steals.
Final home weekend
For the first time this season, the Bulldogs (15-5) will host a home doubleheader this weekend, taking on Mountain View Friday at 7 p.m. (JVs at 4 p.m.) and Lyman Saturday at noon (JVs at 9 a.m.).
Mountain View comes in 7-10 overall, 2-2 in the 3A Southwest. The Bulldogs clobbered the Buffalos on their home court, 62-43, at the early Bridger Valley Tournament, “but that was worlds ago,” Durtsche said, adding, “They’re a totally different team now.”
Mountain View is riding a four-game winning streak, Durtsche noted, with wins over Worland, Thermopolis, Lander and Rawlins.
“They’re really scrappy, and they have a couple of pretty good guards,” Durtsche said. “They’re just a tough, scrappy group. They press with a 2-2-1 and back into a man or zone.”
Lyman is 4-12 on the season, 0-4 in conference play, but the Eagles lost to Lovell at the Bridger Valley Tournament by just six points, 52-46, in December and beat Rawlins 51-48 in their most recent game.
“Lyman is still struggling to find out who they are,” Durtsche said.
The Bulldogs will close out the regular season Thursday, Feb. 22, at Powell.