Indians Upset Bid Falls Short as they Fall 41-33

Oskaloosa Indians

by Matt Saville

Grinnell, Iowa – The Oskaloosa boys traveled to Grinnell Friday night to take on the Tigers in a Little Hawkeye Conference match up.

What transpired was an Indian squad who played with pride, guts and determination.

Once the ball went up it was game on, as Oskaloosa had a seesaw first quarter with the Tigers. The game was tied then changed hands multiple times throughout the night.

Senior Ryan Reiter got the Indians going with a 10 foot jumper. Sophomore Jack Moore continued his early season success with good solid drives to the basket. Moore also converted 3 of 4 free throws.

The Indians trailed 9-5 at the end of the first quarter. Both teams played good defense but just couldn’t find the bottom of the basket.

Coach Parker had his troops ready for the game, showing good effort on the defensive side as the Indian zone defense was causing the Tigers major headaches.

Moore stepped up and knocked down a long bucket and the Indians trailed 9-7.

Grinnell hit a big 3 point bucket, but Moore once again answered the punch as he drained another long bucket. Junior Wade Votroubek hit a layup and then nailed two free throws to get the score to 17-13 in favor of the Tigers.

Oskaloosa was hanging with one of the league leaders, and the boys were gaining confidence. Reiter nailed a bomb from well behind the 3 point line. Layups by DeJong and Votroubek aided the Indians to claim the lead 20-19 at the half.

One stat that just never shows up is the charge. Ki-Jana DeJong took 3 charges, helping to spur the rest of his teammates on.

Both teams came out fighting after halftime. It was still tough going on both teams offenses as they were not getting the ball to fall. A good offense was difficult with both teams defenses proving to be stout.

The Indians continued to lead throughout the third quarter. The Indians had buckets by DeJong and Moore, but Oskaloosa found themselves trailing by just a bucket at the end of the third 28-26.

A hallmark of this year’s team…great finishes.The Indians had trouble finding points, and turned the ball over. The Tigers took advantage, growing their lead to as many as 8 points.

Moore and Votroubek continued to try to keep the Indians in it, with Reiter scoring on a great spin move. Ultimately, it was too little too late, as the Tigers held on for a hard fought 41-33 LHC win.

Oskaloosa was led by Moore with 14 points. Votroubek added 8 points. Reiter scored 7 points, with DeJong adding 4 points.

Oskaloosa now moves to 3-3 on the season and is in action again on January 6th, at home against DCG in LHC action.