By Alex Benzegala
Panhandle Post
The Alliance Bulldogs girls and basketball teams faced two of the best high school teams in the panhandle, and on the girls side the state on Saturday afternoon in Bridgeport, but ultimately Alliance lost both games, 56-29 on the girl's side and then another nailbiter 60-58.
Alliance got off to a great start in the girl's game by using strong defense to befuddle Bridgeport early on and take a lead. However, full court pressure and timely shots helped Bridgeport get going late in the 1st and they continued the momentum into the 2nd quarter. Alliance had two double-figure scorers in Jaelynne Clarke and Cici Hudson, and defensively the Bulldogs were able hold Bridgeport to almost 20 points below their scoring average of 72.
Alliance falls to 4-7 and will try to get a big win away win over a Chadron team on Friday that is 7-5.
On the boy's side, Alliance played one of their better games, leading for the majority of the game against a good Bridgeport squad, but Bridgeport overcame a ten-point Alliance lead to come back to pick up the 60-58 victory. Both teams had excellent guard play as Espen Lanik and Seth Meyring were raining threes throughout the game, but frustration with the accumulation of fouls settled in for Alliance in the 2nd half and the offense that was humming in the 3rd quarter started to stall.
Bridgeport took advantage and Kolby Lusseto had a huge fourth quarter, draining multiple 3's to help Bridgeport get to 6-3.
The loss for Alliance was their 2nd by two points or fewer and the second time they lost when leading by 10 points or more in the second half.
Next up for Alliance is an away game at Chadron on Friday followed by their first home game against Rapid City Christian.