{"id":71283,"date":"2016-11-28T20:34:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T03:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preview-dove-creek-girls-basketball\/"},"modified":"2016-11-29T03:34:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T03:34:13","slug":"preview-dove-creek-girls-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preview-dove-creek-girls-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Dove Creek girls basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c552dcb5-00b5-4424-8d88-0f6b0c24ce01&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1940\" height=\"1853\" alt=\"Marissa Hatfield pulls down a rebound in a game against Mancos last season. Hatfield is a key returner for the Bulldogs this season.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Marissa Hatfield pulls down a rebound in a game against Mancos last season. Hatfield is a key returner for the Bulldogs this season.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Sam Green\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The volleyball team did it. Why can\u2019t the basketball team?<\/p>\n<p>The 2015 Dove Creek Volleyball team went 3-18, but this year\u2019s squad responded by winning 12 games and making a regional tournament appearance, finishing with a 12-13 record.<\/p>\n<p>So, after going just 1-19 during the 2015-16 basketball season, the Lady Bulldogs are hoping to make a leap similar to the volleyball team\u2019s this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom when I started three years ago we\u2019ve improved each year,\u201d said head coach Angie Gatlin. \u201cAnd I think this year we\u2019re going to see more improvements all around in our game. I think it\u2019s going to be based on attitude. If they can come in and give us 100 percent and have the right attitude, I think we\u2019ll see a different ball team for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After graduating four players from last year\u2019s team, the Bulldogs will lean on returners Madilyn Hankins, LaRissa Randolph and Marissa Hatfield, as well as their lone senior Shelby Fullmer and freshmen Cassie Gatlin, Taylor Hickman, Aspen Kibel, Ashley Skidmore and Jolena Spigner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey could all potentially play varsity,\u201d Gatlin said of her strong freshman class. \u201cThey have some good skills coming in and they could all have a part in varsity play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a mix of size, speed and skill, Gatlin couldn\u2019t point to a specific area of strength for her team, saying they should be improved in all areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we are going to be strong outside and inside both this year,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have some potential in all of the shooting we\u2019ve been doing at practice \u2013 all of them can shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Lady Bulldogs will kick off the 2016-17 campaign at home on Thursday, Dec. 1 against Ignacio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lady Bulldogs look to bounce back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[80],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-71283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dove-creek"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71283"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=71283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}