Indians Start Postseason Over South Tama

Oskaloosa’s Xavier Foster heads in for the windmill dunk against South Tama on Monday night. (photo by Denis Currier)

by Jamie Brockman

The Oskaloosa boys basketball team opened their postseason with a commanding 65-28 win at home over South Tama Monday night. South Tama’s strategy was to hold the ball, run the clock and take the Indians run and gun game away. It worked for about the first 10 minutes or so as Osky led 9-2 after one quarter.

The Indians then picked up their intensity defensively, which led to offense, and with a 26-5 run in the second quarter, Osky was in control leading 35-7 at halftime.

Halftime didn’t slow Oskaloosa, as they outscored the Trojans 22-10 in the third quarter to open up a 40 point lead heading into the final quarter and were never really challenged in the 65-28 win.

The first half was raining three’s for Osky as Seniors Austin Hafner and Rian Yates were both red hot from long range. Hafner finished with 15 points on 5-6 three-point shooting.

Xavier Foster scored 13 points to go along with seven rebounds and three blocks; Yates added 12. Cole Henry battled foul trouble playing limited minutes to finish with six points, and Jackson Blythe had a season-high six points. Noah Van Veldhuizen added five while Isaac Schultz scored three and his younger brother William added two.

Oskaloosa improved to 14-5 on the season and will host Washington, a team they handled earlier this season 74-48, in a Class 3A Substate semifinal Thursday night at 7 pm.

You can hear the game live with Jamie Brockman and Doug DeKock on the call starting with pregame at 6:45 pm on Osky News Live as well as 96.7FM KIIC.