Bulldog basketball set to face Sedg.Co.

The Haxtun Bulldogs are set to compete in the Holiday Tournament at Northeastern Junior College this week. Teams should see play Thursday, Friday and Saturday before heading into a two-week break for Christmas and New Year's. The Bulldogs hold a 1-2 record heading into tournament play following a 66-30 loss at Highland over the weekend.

Saturday's action pitted the Bulldogs against a higher classified Highland Huskies in Ault. The night before, Highland took down Merino 64-28.

The Huskies' starting five flaunts players six feet and above who took a noteworthy advantage over the Bulldogs. Highland's full-court press paired with a fast-paced offense made for a 33-19 home team advantage at the half. Despite attempts to slow the game down and handle the ball with better control, the Bulldogs fell by 36 in their only outing last weekend.

"In the first half we did a good job getting into our offenses and executing. Defensively we played pretty well, but struggled finishing possessions with a rebound," Bulldog Head Coach Jayden Stieb said in a re-cap of his team's performance. "The biggest stat that stood out was rebounding. Highland secured 70 percent of their defensive rebounds while we were just over 50. They controlled the glass throughout the game. With bigger players across from us we need to do a better job fighting for position and getting rebounds."

According to stats from the book provided by Stieb, junior guard Chase Goddard led the Bulldog offense with 12 points on Saturday. Junior Colin Cone put five points on the board followed by Kanin Koberstein with four points. Senior Ryland Wolff registered three points, as did senior Tate Michael, followed by Jaxsen Schram with two points and Madden Larsen with one.

This week the Bulldogs will face Sedgwick County in day one action of the annual Holiday Tournament. That game is set to be played on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. According to MaxPreps, the Cougars are undefeated at 3-0 early this season. Over the past two weeks, Sedgwick County picked up wins over Fleming, South Platte and Wiggins.

"These three games are the most important we've had. Our previous three, we played some good competition, but we've yet to play a team in our classification. This week we have a good chance of not only playing thee teams in our classification, but three teams in our league. I'm excited to see how we perform. As a team we've been looking forward to this tournament since our first practice," Stieb said.

A win puts the Bulldogs on the court at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night, a loss would set the team up for a 1:30 p.m. Friday contest. Game play continues into Saturday depending on the outcome of matches the day before.

"In our two losses we've struggled with turnovers and rebounding. That's something we need to get fixed. Cleaning up those two areas of the game will be our main focus," said Stieb. "I'm really happy with how guys handled these first two weeks. Obviously there are a few things to clean up, but given the circumstances, I like where we're at as a team."