Oskaloosa Boy’s Basketball Season Comes to End

Oskaloosa Indians

by Matt Saville

Coming into the 2014-15 basketball season the expectations for the Osky boys’ basketball were to improve on a one win season. New head coach Ryan Parker and his new staff knew they had their work cut out for them. The coaching staff hit the ground running,  working hard. They implemented a new system, where they saw some good improvement.

The Indians season came to an end Monday night in the first round of the playoffs, losing to #1 Pella 88-52.

Oskaloosa had played the Little Dutch just two games ago and lost that contest by 70 points, easily the low point of the season for the Indians.

On Monday night the Indians were looking to take better care of the basketball and to handle Pella’s pressure better.

Oskaloosa did both of those things much better this time around, but they couldn’t string together stops on the defensive side. Pella had a team that was absolutely on fire from the 3 point range, which helped lead to the season ending defeat.

Sophomore Jack Moore led the Indians with 17 points followed by 11 points from senior Ryan Rieter.

Some of the team leaders were: Moore leading in points per game, Rieter leading in rebounds per game, senior Max Johnson led in assists, and junior Wade Votroubek in blocks.

The Indians said good-bye Monday night to seniors Nate Van Veldhuizen, Brayton Carter, Samuel Ginaven, Dwayne Lipscomb, Jordan Silvers, Tanner Lanphier, Ki-Jana DeJong, Ryan Rieter and Max Johnson.

Oskaloosa ends the season 6-16 which is a 5 game improvement over last season, and they were very much in 3 or 4 other games.

With some core players coming back and success on the JV and freshman levels, the Indians look to continue to improve going into the 2015-16 season.