A combination of strong defense and balanced scoring keyed a win for the Alliance boy’s basketball squad Thursday in a game with Mitchell. The Bulldogs defeated the Tigers 58 to 41 in the first round of the Western Conference Tournament which was played in Gering. With the victory, Alliance now sees its record go to 11 and 5 for the season. The Bulldogs led the entire game that was very similar to the Alliance win over Mitchell back in December when AHS downed the Tigers 61 to 45. Junior Espen Lanik led the Dog scoring with 21 points. Also finishing in double figures were Seth Meyring who tallied 17 and Payton Boyer with 12.
A Lanik trey started the scoring in the opening quarter. It was followed by a Meyring basket and a free throw by Boyer as the Bulldogs raced to a 6 to 0 lead. The Tigers answered with a 3 pointer and a 2 that sliced their deficit to 1 at the 4 minute mark of the first. Meyring stretch the Alliance margin to 3 with his second deuce but a Tiger three pointer knotted the contest at 8 with 2 minutes left. The quarter closed with another 3 ball by Lanik and AHS holding an 11 to 8 lead.
Alliance would put together their best scoring quarter in the second. The Dogs tallied 19 points to extend their advantage. Mitchell would score first that made the score 11 to 10 but the Dogs responded with the game’s next 10 points to go up 21 to 10. During the spree, Alliance got points from Lanik, Jaden Guerra, and Boyer. A Tiger three ended the run but a basket by Alliance’s Trevor Zurn kept Mitchell down by 10. Back to back goals by the Tigers then sliced the Dog margin to 6 at 23 to 17 at the 2 minute stage of the quarter. Alliance had one more run in them as the half came. The Bulldogs finished the period on a 7 to 2 run that gave AHS a 30 to 19 lead at halftime. Twos by Lanik and Meyring pushed the Dogs lead to 10 and a buzzer beating trey by Meyring made the halftime score Alliance 30 Mitchell 19.
A bucket by the Tigers began the third scoring but a 14 to 0 Alliance spurt helped AHS surge head 44 to 21. Two pointers by Meyring, Lanik, and Boyer gave the Dogs some breathing room. Lanik then canned back to back threes and following a 2 by Zurn, Alliance held a 44 to 21 lead with 4 minutes left in period #3. A brief spree by the Tigers closed out the quarter with Mitchell outscoring the Bulldogs 6 to 2. A Boyer goal accounted for the lone Bulldog tally and the quarter closed with AHS up 46 to 27.
In the fourth, Mitchell would outscore Alliance by just 2 at 14 to 12 as the Bulldogs maintain their margin. One free throw by Boyer and 2 from the charity stripe by Alliance’s Braeden made the score Alliance 49 Mitchell 28 with 6 minutes left in the game. After 2 straight buckets by the Tigers, another score by Meyring kept the pressure on Mitchell. Down by 19, a 7 to 0 run by the Tigers closed their gap to 12 midway through the finale. AHS came back with a 2 pointer by Meyring and Lanik’s fifth three pointer of the contest. At the 2 minute mark, AHS scored their last goal of the night with a deuce by Meyring. Final Alliance 58 Mitchell 41
MITCH 8 11 8 14 41
AHS 11 19 16 12 58
Scoring for Alliance Lanik 21 Meyring 17 Boyer 12 Zurn 4 Guerra 2 Clarke 2
On Friday, the Dogs played at Cougar Palace in Scottsbluff with a semi final matchup with Sidney.