Bulldogs Bounce Back, Roll Over TCP

DAYTON - Shaken up a bit after their loss against the Cardinals last week, it took the Bulldogs a couple of games to regain their footing.

But Tuesday night's resounding, 73-28, defeat of the Jaguars team that came within two points of beating Dayton last Wednesday shows the Dogs have found their mojo again.

"Things are coming back together," senior Bulldog Colton Bickelhaupt said. "We had a tough stretch there with WP and TCP. But tonight we played better defense, we pushed the ball up the court and finished all our shots."

Still stung by their disappointing performance against WP, the Bulldogs came out flat against the Jaguars last Wednesday and were plagued by some of the same poor shooting. They gave up a 17-point lead in the third quarter and barely won the game, 51-49.

"We just coasted and let them back into the game," Bickelhaupt said.

Head coach Roy Ramirez agreed.

"The poor shooting carried over," he said. "I think being undefeated put a lot of pressure on them. They wanted to keep that and were pushing too much."

The game last Friday against Liberty Christian went much better. The Dogs won that encounter, 80-53, despite top scorer Garett Turner's atypical five-point performance.

"We righted the ship against Liberty Christian," Ramirez said. "Then tonight we had a really good night. Our defense was the key."

Dayton took the wind out of the Jaguars' sails in the first quarter last Tuesday, scoring 11 unanswered points with Turner on fire, the confident tight passing and long passes that took the plays coast-to-coast at many points during the game.

The Dogs collected a comfortable 15-point lead by the end of the first quarter at 19- 4. The Jaguars came to life a bit in the second quarter, but Dayton's team work in and around the key made the dogs unstoppable. TCP's failure to make easy shots, in addition to several Bulldogs treys, rubbed salt in the Jaguars' wounds. Dayton was up by more than 30 points (39-8) by the end of the first half.

The last two quarters weren't any more kind to the Tri Cities team. The Jaguars found it hard to defend against an offense that seamlessly mixed up their offensive strategies, switching from tight and fast-weaving attacks on the key, to high, long forward passes that caught the TCP defense flat-footed almost every time.

The third quarter ended, 55- 20, and the mercy rule of running down the clock continuously went into effect shortly after the start of the fourth quarter. Bulldog Wyatt Frame, who scored 12 points for the evening made layup after layup in the last period. Ramirez turned loose his bench 3 minutes before the end.

Dayton's last game of the regular season is against De- Sales at home on Friday, but one of the two top spots in the playoffs is already guaranteed. The Bulldogs will play the Cardinals on Wednesday either at home or at Kison Court in Waitsburg.

"We got to come out ready to play and move on from there," Ramirez said about the game against the Irish this weekend. "DeSales played us pretty tough (earlier in the season)."

The game against the Cardinals is not a loser out contest. Win or lose on Wednesday, both teams will go on to play another team in the playoffs at Whitman College the weekend of Feb. 18.

Dayton vs Tri Cities Prep

(Feb. 1)

51-49

Dayton (51) 16 13 10 12 - 51

TCP (49) 8 8 20 13 - 49

Garett Turner 22, Kroft Sunderland 11, Hayden Fullerton 10,

Joey Schlachter 5 and Colton

Bickelhaupt 2.

Dayton vs Liberty Christian

(Feb. 3)

80-53

Dayton (80) 22 11 27 20 - 80

LC (53) 8 10 12 24 - 53

Fullerton 27, Sunderland 21,

Frame 14, Bickelhaupt 7,

Schlachter 6 and Turner 5.

Dayton vs TCP

(Feb. 7)

73-28

Dayton (73) 19 20 16 18 - 73

TCP (28) 4 4 12 8 - 28

Turner 23, Frame 12, Fullerton

9, Sunderland 9, Bickelhaupt 7

and Schlachter 4.