Fehringer Reflects on Regionals

Peetz's Bulldog boy's basketball team was unable to follow up on their 2017-18 Class 1A State Championship, falling short in this year's Regional Tournament in the finals against Haxtun. Although unable to defend their state title, the Bulldogs had a very successful year, compiling a 17-and-6 record (7-and-1 in league), earning runner-up honors at the District Tournament, and a Regional Finals appearance.

After losing to Merino in the districts, the Bulldogs needed to take a slightly more difficult path into the regionals, not qualifying for a bye in the first round. The Bulldogs were matched up against Denver-Waldorf, a private school of small size but with a solid team. They were led by 6'7" junior standout Aly Sahko, and Peetz head coach Sean Fehringer knew the team would have to prepare for the Spartan's star player.

Fehringer's plan worked exactly as intended, and limited Sakho's production temendously. Fehringer said, "We did exactly what we wanted to do. Our game plan was to get him in foul trouble and allow him to have as little impact on the game as possible. The scouting reports indicated that he wqasn't a very disciplined player at that you could take charges on him, as well as take advantage of the fact that he like to try and block shots."

As planned, Sahko go into foul trouble quickly, fouling senior Bryson Long by falling for a head fake, then racking up two charging fouls against senior Blake Roelle, forcing him to sit on the bench with three fouls not even midway through the second quarter.

"When he was on the floor we made it just tough enough for him to hold him well under his season average for scoring."

The plan worked well, and the Bulldogs were able to take the game by ten points, 58-to-48. Next up was Haxtun and their tough defense. Peetz had already lost by a big score earlier in the season when they faced Haxtun in Peetz, and needed everything to go right if they were going to win.

Fehringer said, "We expected them to play man to man, which is what they did in the first qaurter. Our game plan was to take advantage of whichever one of our players we thought had the most favorable matchup. It turned out that Bryson (Long) had the best matchup, so we looked to establish him inside. Unfortunately, Haxtun didn't stay in man coverage, and switched to a 2-3 zone."

While Haxtun was playing man to man coverage in the first period, Peetz was able to contain their offense and led 11-to-10 going into the second period. Haxtun then switched to a predominately 2-3 zone scheme, and Peetz stated getting careless holding onto the ball.

"Our Achilles heel was too many turnovers in the second quarter that led to easy points for Haxtun. The 12 point deficit at the half ended up being too much for us to overcome", said Fehringer.

He added, "We battled hard in the second half, but couldn't get the defensive stops and rebounds needed to get us over the hump. Haxtun is a good team and they have as good of a shot as any to win the State Championship. Our boys have nothing to hang their heads about.

Although Peetz loses talented seniors Bryson Long, Dominic Naegele, Zach Holtz, Blake Roelle, and Jacob Kurz, the team's underclassmen and junior varsity players will be ready to fill their slots and continue the basketball success Peetz has enjoyed over the last few seasons.

Fehringer said, "I'm going to miss the seniors – I always do. Each one of this group played critical roles for this team, be it scoring, defense, rebounds, taking charges, or whatever needed to be done to help the team. There will be big shoes to fill on both sides of the ball, so we're going to have to have some kids step up this summer in order to similar success next year. Our identity will likely change a little bit next year, but if we have a significant number of kids commit to getting better over the summer, we may surprise some people."