Indians Struggle To Find Themselves Against Pella

Rian Yates drives past the Pella defender on Friday night in Pella.

by Jamie Brockman

With news breaking Thursday night that Oskaloosa leading scorer Cole Henry suffered a broken hand, the team knew things would be tough playing at Pella Friday night.

Henry may be out for weeks, and the Indians had no time to prepare to play Pella without Henry.

Oskaloosa got off to a very slow start falling behind 12-5 after one quarter, and they never climbed back in, eventually falling 64-39.

The Indians trailed by as many as 21 in the second quarter, then found some fire scoring the final six points of the quarter to close within 34-19 at halftime.

The Indians leaned heavily on Senior Rian Yates and Junior seven footer Xavier Foster throughout the game, but Pella was doubling up defensively on Foster in the paint making things difficult for him all night and were guarding Yates tight.

Yates finished with 15 points to lead Osky, including three 3 pointers, but Oskaloosa was unable to make up the early deficit. In addition to Yates 15, Foster added nine points, Isaac Schultz scored four, Austin Hafner three, Jackson Blythe and Tyler Miller each added two and Colton Butler scored one point.

Pella was led Ryan Gustafson’s 18 while Nick DeJong added 13 and Logan Shetterly 12.

Oskaloosa fell to 9-5 overall and 5-3 in the LHC while Pella got the season sweep over Osky and improved to 12-4 and 7-3 in LHC play.

Oskaloosa gets no time to rest or dwell on the loss as they return to action at D-C-G Saturday at 5:30 pm following the girls game.