Indians Let One Get Away

Ashley Drost battles under the rim against Newton at home on Friday night.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Indians Girls Varsity Basketball Team had their match-up against the Newton Cardinals circled on their calendar as one they wanted.

Unfortunately for the Indians, the Newton Cardinals were too much for them, defeating the Indians 49-34 to go to 2-4 on the season, while the Indians fell to 0-7.

Indians Head Coach Jacie White said that the defensive effort wasn’t quite what it should have been to start the game. “We talk to the girls a lot about not letting our offense be what fuels our defense, let our defense be what fuels our offense. We kind of had that flip-flopped the first quarter.”

White said the Indians came out the 3rd quarter and played better defensively. “We’ve got to be able to play that way for four quarters, and we haven’t stretched four quarters together yet, but it’s going to happen for us.”

The Indians went with a bigger lineup to help pound the ball inside, and White said that Ashley Drost is one that will post hard, “and she did that for us and that really opened up a lot of shots. She wasn’t necessarily a scorer for us, but when somebody’s posting hard inside, that pulls defense and that opens it up a little bit more for our offense on the outside.”

The Indians have done better at not turning over the ball. “I think a lot of our turnovers use to come from pressure and not knowing what to do with the ball. Now it comes from jump stop. We get a press broken and then we panic. It’s just going to be taking that one more step and putting it all together.”

Marleigh Denburger lead the Indians with 13 points on the night. Jillian Jennings added 9, and Kaylee Johnson scored 6.

Ashley Drost had a big night on the boards for the Indians with 10 rebounds. Denburger had 8 rebounds, and Jennings had 6.

The Indians will travel to EBF on Saturday night for a non-conference matchup.