Bulldogs drop pair of contests
MOUNTAINBURG — It has been four years since the Decatur Bulldog boys’ basketball team made the 90-minute trip to Mountainburg to play in a conference contest. The Thursday night trip rekindled the old rivalry as the Bulldogs went head-to-head with the Dragons.
For the Dragons, the outcome was a desirable one; for the Bulldogs, the end was not.
Both the Bulldogs and Dragons competed in the old 2A North conference from the 2013-2014 season until the 2019-2020 season, when Decatur was moved to the 1A Region 1 conference by the Arkansas Activities Association. During the 2014-2015 season, the Bulldogs went 10-1, which included a pair of wins against the Dragons. But this night, the Dragons were in full control of the contest by 24 points.
Mountainburg took the lead early in the first quarter. But the Bulldogs managed to keep pace and only lagged behind by 10 in the middle of the second quarter until, suddenly, the offensive game plan went cold and the Dragons began pulling away. By the end of the first half, they were leading the Bulldogs by 20.
When the Bulldogs hit the court for the beginning of the second half, it looked as though they might have a chance at victory when the offense began landing its shots. But the Dragons were a much tougher team and went on to claim the nonconference win, 56-32.
The Bulldogs had no players in double figures for this contest. However, three Bulldogs, Jackson Montano, Deegan Brooks and JJ Herrera, led the scoring drive with six points each, followed by Devin Thor, Brian Ruiz, Landen Watson and Brandon Montano with three points each. Jayden Gonzalez rounded out the Bulldog scoring effort against Mountainburg with two.
Earlier in the week, the Bulldogs traveled to the gym at Arkansas Athletes Outreach in Rogers to take on the Ozark Catholic Academy Griffins in a nonconference showdown. Since the Griffins have no gym in Tontitown, the Rogers facility serves as their home court.
The Bulldogs started the Dec. 6 contest with two straight field goals to lead by four until the Griffins took advantage of a series of missed three-point attempts by the Bulldogs to surge ahead. By the end of the first half, the Griffins held a 20-point lead.
The Bulldogs tried to light a fire under its offense but were unable to hit the basket. A strong defensive play by Decatur denied the Griffins a complete blowout, but the Ozark Catholic Academy varsity boys took the win, 57-17, over the Decatur Bulldogs.
Leading the Bulldogs for this contest were Deegan Brooks and Brian Ruiz with six points each, followed by Devin Thor with five.
Like so many contests in the past two weeks, the Bulldogs played a strong defensive game and managed to force the other teams to turn over the ball. But the team is struggling to hit the basket. Decatur makes good shot selections from both the three-point line and inside. The trouble comes when they fail to take time, rush their shots, and then fail to drop the ball through the hoop for two or three points.
But this is something that head boys basketball coach Austin Frederking plans to work out over the coming weeks. He hopes by the start of the conference season in January 2023 to have corrected the problem.