Oskaloosa Boys Fall To CR Jefferson By One Point
The Oskaloosa Indians fell to Cedar Rapids Jefferson 62-61 on Saturday evening. (photo by Jamie Brockman)
by Jamie Brockman
It was a week late, thanks to Mother Nature, but the Oskaloosa boys traveled to Cedar Rapids to face Cedar Rapids Jefferson at the US Cellular Center Saturday night in the final game of the 2019 Wells Fargo Advisors Shootout. Fans were treated to a great, back and forth basketball game, where both teams star players were able to shine.
Oskaloosa burst out to an early 11-3 lead, and Cedar Rapids Jefferson called a timeout to adjust. From there it was even, as both teams swapped leads throughout the game. After trailing by six points in the second quarter, Oskaloosa caught fire and headed to the locker room with a 34-33 halftime lead.
Blake Bouzek started the second half hitting three straight long-range shots for C.R. Jefferson, but each time they’d build a lead, Osky would answer back, but trailed 50-49 heading into the fourth quarter.
Late in the fourth quarter, it looked like Jefferson had control and was going to win the game, but not so, the Indians clawed back and had a couple of chances to tie or take the lead.
Xavier Foster sank two free throws to give Osky a one-point lead with around 30 seconds remaining, but the J-Hawks hit a baseline jumper to regain the edge. With 9.5 seconds left, coming out of a timeout, Austin Hafner just missed a three-point shot which secured the C.R. Jefferson 62-61 win.
Cole Henry led all scorers with 30 points, while Xavier Foster added 17. Rian Yates had six points while Austin Hafner and Noah Van Veldhuizen scored three, while Isaac Schultz contributed two points.
Despite shooting 33 percent from the three-point line coming in, the J-Hawks were hot from long range draining 11 three-pointers in the game. Jefferson was led by Willie Guy’s 28 while Ozzie Meiborg dumped in 16.
Oskaloosa Head Coach Ryan Parker spoke to Oskaloosa News after the game.
“We got better tonight,” Parker told the team in the locker room after the game. “We got better because one, we hadn’t seen zone all year long. We saw 32 minutes of it. I thought we did okay against it.”
“Two, we really hadn’t been in a one-point game in the last minute of anything all season,” added Parker. “We got better because we learned how to handle that better.”
“Those two things I think, if anything you take from it, you got better from those things,” said Parker. “The things we struggled with tonight are the things we struggle with all year long.”
Parker said that he’s wanting his team to get paint touches before the team shoots jump shots, and he says the team needs to do a better job of going by the scouting report. “For us, it was a great learning experience,” said Parker.”
Oskaloosa fell to 9-3 and will travel to D-C-G Tuesday night.
Additional reporting by Ken Allsup
