Indians Take Down Chariton In Last Regular Season Game
Oskaloosa Senior Jared Kruse in action against Chariton on Tuesday night.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Indians returned home on Tuesday night after suffering their third loss of the season.
The Indians came up short against Indianola on Monday night, falling 52-61, and settling for conference co-champions with Norwalk.
Tuesday night, the Chariton Chargers were the victim of a team trying to let everyone know they were still contenders. The Indians won 90-59.
Oskaloosa Head Coach Ryan Parker said his team lost to a good team on Monday night. “We’re still 17-3 going into tonight, so the world’s not ending. The car’s not broken and leaking oil like people have talked about. It’s just part of the season.”
“It’s one of those things where you’re going to have rough patches. You’re not going to win every game by 40. Tonight we got back to playing our basketball,” said Parker. “You don’t have to change a whole lot of things when your 17-3, 18-3, but you don’t want to become complacent either.”
Cole Henry lead the Indians with 27 points against the Chargers. Senior Jared Kruse ended the night with 22 points, five rebounds and three assists. Sophmore Xavier Foster had 19 points on the night, along with 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
Cole Henry spoke about the effort against an overwhelmed Chariton team.
Henry said that it wasn’t anything against Chariton, but the team was working to get their confidence back on track.
“It feels really good to get our confidence back. This was definitely redemption for us,” added Henry.
When it comes to some recent defeats, Henry says that “loosing happens, and it’s how you respond that really matters. I think we will respond well, and finish out the season awesome.”
Henry believes the team’s confidence that was prevalent in the first part of the season has returned. Henry says the same confidence is in place now as when the team defeated Norwalk at home by 30 points. “I think we’re really getting it moving again.”
Senior Jared Kruse played his last regular season game for the Indians on Tuesday night. For Kruse, it hasn’t yet hit him that his days on the court in Oskaloosa are coming to an end, and is focusing on the possible two remaining games he would have in the gym.
Kruse says that their win over Chariton is an indication that they were still mad over their loss at Indianola the night before. “We just had to take it out on someone. Chariton was a little unlucky.”
“Games like this are good for getting the whole team on the scoreboard and having a lot of fun,” added Kruse.
The Indians are heading into the postseason against Saydel on Monday, February 19, with a tip-off time scheduled for 8 pm.
