The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Sixty-six was a lucky number for the Haxtun Bulldogs last week. The Fightin' Bulldogs racked up 66 points in both of their home games last week for a combined 132 points in the final two outings of the regular season. Haxtun outscored their opponents by more than 30 points to go 2-0 before heading into post season play.

Haxtun hosted Wiggins on Thursday in a late night, mid-week match up. Following a double-overtime win from the Lady Bulldogs, the guys took the court for a 66-56 win over the fellow Lower Platte League team. The 2A Wiggins Tigers are 10-9 overall and enter the 2A post season bracket as the third seeded team.

Three Bulldogs put double-digits on the board against the Tigers including seniors Owen Knode and David Avery as well as junior Michael Gerk. Knode led his team with 17 points. Avery contributed 14 while Gerk added 13. Isaac Andersen registered seven points followed by Maclin Tempel with seven, Osman Coss with four and Ryland Wolff with three.

The following night, Haxtun hosted Lone Star for their final home game match up this season. The night began with parent appreciation followed by special recognition of this year's senior athletes.

The starting five seniors jumped to an early lead over the Longhorns and the Bulldogs never looked back; going on to earn a 66-45 victory for a perfect ending to the regular season.

Tempel put up 14 points against Lone Star, the team high, followed by Andersen with 13 and Avery with nine. Knode added eight points, as did Coss, followed by Gerk with seven, Alex Farrell with three and Kyle Fryrear and Wolff, each with two.

"We're excited to get started with the post season," said Head Coach Jayden Stieb. "I think the team feels that we are hitting our stride at the right time of the year. We're feeling good about going into Districts on a little win streak. Our pace of play has really started to pick up and we're going to try to keep that going into this week."

Haxtun ended the regular season with a 14-5 overall record and 4-3 in league play. The Bulldogs enter the District 4 Tournament as the number two seeded team behind number one ranked Briggsdale.

Kyle Fryrear

The Bulldogs are set to face Caliche in the first round of District play on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. It will be the third meeting of the two teams this season. Haxtun has outscored the Buffs 174-99 in the first two meetings, both wins going to the Bulldogs.

Should Haxtun beat Caliche again, the team will face the winner of Merino and Fleming on Feb. 24 at 8:30 p.m. at NJC.

The winner of that game advances to the Championship match on Saturday afternoon, also at NJC in Sterling. For a complete bracket, see page 8 in this week's edition of the Herald.

"We'll just have to take it one game at time. The goal is to be 1-0 at the end of each game day," Stieb said.