Indians season comes to an end with 70-40 loss to Mt. Pleasant in sub-state final

Jarad Kruse drives against Mt. Pleasant on Monday night.

by Doug DeKock

Future looks Bright!!

The Oskaloosa Indian Boys’ basketball team picked the wrong night not to play well. The result was a 70-40 loss to a very good Mt. Pleasant team, that improved to 22-2 for the year. The Indians were right in the game, and even led most of the 1st quarter, settling for a 14-14 tie after one quarter.

The wheels then fell off and Oskaloosa had no answer for 6’9 senior Tom O’Conner and junior Brady Sartorious for the rest of the game. O’Conner continually scored inside, while Sartorious finally heated up in the 3rd period, as Mt. Pleasant put Oskaloosa away.

Jarad Kruse and Tanner DeKock did all of the scoring in the 1st quarter to help keep the game close, with Kruse scoring 8 points and DeKock 6 points in the quarter. The Panther defense then limited Oskaloosa to 9 points, in both the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

Xavier Foster nailed two 3-pointers in the 2nd quarter, pulling Oskaloosa to 30-23 at the half. That is as close as it would get the rest of the way. Kruse finished with 13 points, Foster with 11, and DeKock with 6, to lead the Indians in scoring.

While Oskaloosa was disappointed with its performance, there is no denying that the future for Oskaloosa basketball is extremely bright. The Indians finished this year at 15-9 and as district champs. The fifteen wins were just one win away from equaling the previous four years’ win total combined.

Four juniors, two sophomores, and one freshman, who played significant minutes this year, will all return next year. Oskaloosa will have senior leadership, along with talented underclassman who played very well this year.

The Indians will lose four seniors from this squad, with Jack Moore getting the most playing time of them. Moore finished his Oskaloosa career having his best season in four seasons of starting. It was fantastic that the seniors could go out winners this year!

I would not be surprised to see the Indians ranked in the top 5 next year and possibly as high as #1! Players will need to work hard in the offseason, to make these expectations a reality next year, but it is possible for a 17 or 18 win regular season to happen. In the meantime, put your shades on, because the future’s so bright we gotta wear shades.

Posted by on Mar 1 2017. Filed under News, School Activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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