Norwalk Girls Down Osky Girls 66-37

Oskaloosa Indians

by Matt Saville

Tuesday night took the Oskaloosa girls basketball team to Norwalk to take on a very tough, tall and talented Warrior basketball team. Osky was trying to build momentum coming off of Saturday’s road victory against North Mahaska.

The first couple of minutes looked like it was going to be a blowout right away, as Norwalk worked inside out and took advantage of their height and long range shooting to jump out to a 9-2 lead. Osky’s only basket came from sophomore Alexis Westercamp. That seemed to wake Osky up, as they fought and clawed for the remainder of the first quarter. The Indians were very active on the boards, taking better care of the basketball compared to previous games. Senior Taylor Richardson drained a long two and Westercamp attacked the boards, hitting a couple more put backs and ending the quarter with Norwalk leading 14-9.

The start of the second quarter was what sophomore Paige Howard had been waiting for. She took over and drove down the left side of the lane for the layup, then pulled up from well beyond the three point arc and drilled a bomb to knot the score 14-14. That seemed to be a huge slap in the face that woke up the Warriors, as they drained a 3 pointer and worked the give-and-go to perfection. Norwalk then continued to go inside and work back out for open 3’s. They spread their lead, finishing the half on a 15-4 run to lead 29-18 at halftime.

The second half was more of the same, as Osky just couldn’t stop the Warriors.  Norwalk continued to drain 3’s and exploited Oskaloosa on the inside for easy layups. Howard and Westercamp hit a couple more baskets each, but it was for not on this night as the Warriors ran away with the Little Hawkeye Conference victory 66-37.

Oskaloosa was led by Westercamp with 12 pts., Howard with 11 pts. and Richardson with 9 pts. Osky is now 2-7 on the season and is in action next Friday night at home, against the Pella Little Dutch.