Indians One Game Away From The Well
The 2018-19 Oskaloosa Boys Basketball Team.
by Jamie Brockman
The Oskaloosa Boys road to state continued Thursday night as the Indians moved one step closer to Wells Fargo Arena with a convincing 78-53 win over Washington in the Class 3A Substate semifinal.
After a competitive first quarter that saw Oskaloosa holding a 19-13 lead, it was all Indians from that point, as they outscored the Demons 22-16 in the second quarter. The Indians then really blew things open in the third quarter holding Washington to five total points resulting in a 65-34 lead heading into the final quarter, and ultimately the 78-53 win.
Entering the game Oskaloosa Senior Cole Henry needed 22 points to reach the 1000 point career mark, and he got that and a few extra in his final game in the Oskaloosa gym. Henry lead the team with 25 points while also grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out five assists. Fellow Seniors Rian Yates and Austin Hafner each had big games also scoring 15 and 11 respectively. Yates also handed out 10 assists.
Junior Tyler Miller had his highest offensive production of the season scoring 13 points. Miller was able to score on several back door cuts on assists from Henry, Yates and Xavier Foster as the defense closed on them leaving Miller open, and he made them pay.
Iszac Schultz scored six, Foster was limited to only five points after early foul trouble, but was a huge presence defensively with 11 rebounds and five blocks, while Noah Van Veldhuizen added two points and Walker Newman added one point.
Oskaloosa improved to 15-5 on the season and has now won six straight games and advances to the Class 3A SubState final vs. Fairfield at Mount Pleasant Monday night at 7 pm. The winner of that game will advance to the State Tournament.
Oskaloosa beat Fairfield 42-40 in the opening game this season.
Following the game, Head Coach Ryan Parker said “It was a good team win ..all together tonight. If they’re going to leave Tyler unguarded we teach him to cut to the rim…he did that all night and credit our big guys for finding him with some beautiful passes. Cole was on a mission tonight, and Rian was pretty impressive too in their final home basketball games. Xavier only scored five points but was still great and controlled the paint defensively.”
Regarding Fairfield, Parker said “they pushed us in the opening game this season, but we were really inexperienced playing together with this group of kids at that point. Our rotation is set now whereas early in the season we were trying to figure things out. Now we’re pretty set on this seven-player rotation, and we’re in a good place and its really paid dividends.”
You can hear Monday’s game live with Jamie Brockman and Doug DeKock on the call with post-game assistance from Bret Doud on Osky News Live as well as 96.7 FM KIIC starting with pre game coverage at 6:30 pm and tip off at 7 pm.
