Bulldogs take third at Districts; advance to Regional action in Brush

The Haxtun Bulldogs are one step closer to a 2022 State Basketball Tournament appearance. The Bulldogs went 2-1 at Districts last week and now sit third in Region 2 pairings. Regional action is set for Saturday in Brush.

The road to Regionals began at the District 4 Tournament last week, kicking things off with a match up with Caliche at Northeastern Junior College on Wednesday night. For the third time this season, Haxtun notched a win over the Buffs, this time 66-36 in a contest at ended Caliche's season. Three Bulldogs led in the scoring column in round one of District action. Senior Owen Knode put 17 points on the board against Caliche followed by senior David Avery with 14 and junior Michael Gerk with 13.

A first round win advanced the Bulldogs in tournament play, pitting the team against Merino for third time this season. Haxtun came out on top in the first two, but at Districts, the story ended differently. Merino came out ready to play, ran the court and rebounded well to go onto earn a 60-45 win over the Bulldogs. The win sent Merino to the championship round Saturday where the Rams would go onto defeat number one Briggsdale by seven to earn the District 4 title.

Junior Maclin Tempel racked up 26 points against the Rams, the Bulldog team high. Knode added eight points while senior Isaac Andersen added four.

The loss to Merino put the Bulldogs in third and fourth place match up against the Prairie Mustangs Saturday morning. Prairie earned a four-point win over Haxtun when the two teams met up in the regular season. This time though, the Bulldogs knew that to keep their season alive, they would need to come out with a win, and that they did. The Bulldogs cruised to a 66-49 win over the Mustangs to take third place District finish and punch their ticket to Regionals.

Knode put double-digits on the scoreboard against Prairie, leading his team with 22 points. Avery registered 14 points followed by Ryland Wolff and Gerk, each with 10.

"It was a pretty good week of basketball. We did some things well, others not so well," said Jayden Stieb, Bulldogs Head Coach. "We felt like we never got into a rhythm against Merino. They controlled the pace of the game. We were able to improve on that against Prairie."

Haxtun enters Regionals as the number three seed just behind number one Evangelical Christian and number two Briggsdale. The Bulldogs will face the winner of number four Simla and number nine Stratton on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in Brush. The winner of the contest will advance to the State Tournament, slated for the following week.

"This week we will need to focus on playing our game and controlling the pace of play," Stieb said. "Nothing has changed, it's still one game at a time. We just need to go 1-0 this week."