WHEATLAND - The Bulldogs welcomed their conference foe the Glenrock Herders Friday night; minus a couple of key players, the first being head coach Michelle Coplen who welcomed her new little teammate to the world, and the other, senior Kacey Otero, who was benched due to a hard bang on the head during play the week before.
Wheatland gained control early on the first tip, and the Herders were swarming around freshman Lily Anderson like bees to honey. Their defense was too close, and too intense as Anderson’s key defender drew two personal fouls within 10 seconds. The basket also seemed to have a seal on it as the first four shots taken by the Lady ‘Dawgs failed to fall.
Play was a little lackluster, and halfway through the first quarter, neither team had scored.
Finally, Anderson nailed a bucket from the arc, Ella Keil drove for a good layup and the lid finally came off for the Bulldogs.
With only two minutes left in the 1st quarter, the Herders finally scored a free throw. Anderson stole the ball and scored - the Herders failed to answer - Keil grabbed a big rebound off a missed three and put it back to bring the score 11-1. Keil was on fire and was good for another bucket as the first period came to a close and Karly Jones hit a buzzer-busting three-pointer, upping the score 16-2.
The second quarter continued much like the first, and the Herders just could not catch a break from the field. Midway through, the scoreboard stood at 22-4, and after Laynie Goertz drilled a bucket, the Bulldogs had a 20-point lead.
Glenrock was finally able to score around the four-minute mark, but Keil was not deterred and scored another bucket. Maintaining possession of the ball was becoming critical for the Herders, and they continued to tally turnovers instead of points. At the end of the half, Lola Philo hit a three, the Herders had collected 15 turnovers, and the score blazed from the scoreboard: 29-8, in favor of Wheatland. As a team, the Bulldogs rebounded 17 times with only six turnovers in the first half in contrast to Glenrock’s ultimate 17 turnovers on the half.
The third quarter found Lily Anderson off the bench after taking a break due to personal fouls in the first half and was up to 10 points in the 3rd period of play. Senior Lily Nichols continued the momentum with a quick put-back and the score bounded out of reach for the Herders, 39-8. After some pass-around, and loose balls, the Herders were finally able to post double-digits on the board, but with back-to-back coast-to-coast plays by Anderson and Keil, the Bulldogs were in complete domination by the end of the 3rd quarter, 47-12.
In 4th quarter play Anderson committed her fourth foul and took a break. Molly McGuire came off the bench in fine form and scored within seconds of joining the game. Not long after this bucket, the running clock started ticking down. Glenrock could not avoid the official’s whistle and collected 28 turnovers by the end of the game. The score stood at 56-17 when time ran out.
Lily Anderson led the scoring for the Lady Bulldogs with 16, Keil added 14, Lily Nichols added nine, Karly Jones put in five, Lola Philo contributed five, Camryn Mickelsen contributed two, Laynie Goertz put in three and Molly McGuire added three. The Bulldogs grabbed 33 rebounds with only 12 turnovers as a team.
