Coyotes battle through tough weekend

The Potter-Dix Coyotes faced a tough opening weekend following the holiday break. The Potter-Dix club began with an away game against the Bayard Tigers on Friday, Jan. 6 and came home with a 60-29 loss.

The Coyotes faced a deeper Bayard bench which coach Ryan Mumm attempted to combat strategically.

“With our lack of depth, fatigue can become an issue but we try to control the tempo of games to counteract our lack of depth,” he said. “

Scoring against the Tigers was led by Dylan Nielsen with 12. Nielsen landed one trey and shot 2/4 from the field and 5/7 from the foul line for a 71 percent free throw average on the night.

Connor Williams followed up with a three-pointer of his against the Bayard boys and shot 2/6 two-pointers and 2/2 from the line for a total of nine on the night.

Tyrus Gawith added four to the Coyote board and Terell Gray and JT Herboldsheimer added two each.

Nielsen led with rebounds on the night as well, grabbing seven total, with two assists, two steals and two blocks.

Gray followed with three rebounds and three blocks, Herboldsheimer rebounded two and added two steals.

“We did a good job against Bayard of continuing to compete even as the game got away from us on the scoreboard,” Mumm said.

Bayard 18 19 16 7 -- 60

Potter-Dix 6 3 11 9 -- 29

The Coyotes hosted the South Platte Blue Knights the following day, Saturday, Jan. 7, for a closer 52-41 loss on home courts.

The Potter-Dix club was again led by Nielsen, who set a career high with 22 points, shooting 5/9 from behind the arc for an impressive 56 percent. He added two field goals and landed ¾ from the line.

The distant second in Coyote scoring came from Williams, with eight points to his credit including two treys and a field goal.

Gawith added five to the board with one two-pointer and ¾ from the foul line, followed by Gray with four points and Michael Steele with two.

Nielsen led with rebounds, grabbing eight boards and snatching one steal with Gawith rebounding seven, lending two assists, one steal and three blocks.

Herboldsheimer came in with three rebounds, one assist and two steals while Williams boarded two and racked up five assists and one steal and Steele and Gray each grabbed two rebounds.

The first quarter ended with a Blue Knight lead of 18-8 and the second quarter was much the same, 15-8, closing the first half with a South Platte lead of 33-16.

Halftime was not kind to the Coyotes, as they came back to score just two to the Blue Knights’ 17 in the third, widening the South Platte lead to 50-18.

The Coyotes rallied in the final quarter, holding their opponents to just two points and added 23 to their board, but the efforts were too little, too late as the game ended with a 52-41 loss for Potter-Dix.

“Against South Platte, we continued to fight throughout the game and made it close toward the end, but unfortunately, it was too little, too late. The boys got some shots to fall, which gave them some confidence and a boost of energy to pick things up defensively,” Mumm said. “We had a great team effort in both games. Lots of players made good plays. Obviously, Dylan’s 22 points stand out. Both nights Connor Williams contributed with respectable stats as well. The majority of our points came off of assists, which is a testament to the team’s unselfish play. Turnovers were again, our downfall in both games. It’s hard to be successful when turning the ball over 25-30 times per game. Once the team can clean those up, we should find ourselves in a better position to be competitive in games.”

South Platte 18 15 17 2 -- 52

Potter-Dix 8 8 2 23 --41