Oskaloosa Boys Basketball Tested In High Profile Shootout
Oskaloosa battled Kansas’s Bishop Miege at the Quincy Shootout in Quincy, Illinois on Saturday afternoon, falling 51-42. (photo by Jamie Brockman)
by Jamie Brockman
The Oskaloosa Boys traveled to Quincy, Illinois Saturday to play in the Quincy High School Shootout. The Invite shootout has a long history and features some of the best high school basketball talent from around the country, including Nevada, North Carolina, Chicago, Kansas City, Arizona, and Illinois.
Osky faced the three-time, back to back to back defending Kansas 4A State Champions, Bishop Miege, from Shawnee, Kansas, a private school that has produced several successful college and pro athletes over the years.
Well, the first quarter was back and forth as each team tried to figure out the other. Oskaloosa 7’0 Junior Xavier Foster established his presence early on both ends of the floor, defensively blocking three shots in the first two minutes of the game while scoring eight first-quarter points. Osky led 7-2 after back to back three-pointers from Foster and Rian Yates, then stretched out to a 12-6 lead following a 3 point play from Foster with 2 minutes remaining in the quarter. Bishop Miege took advantage of some Oskaloosa turnovers to make a late run, but Oskaloosa would lead 14-12 at the end of the first quarter. A thrilling second quarter saw both teams swap leads. Miege led by as many as six and held off a late quarter comeback by Osky to hold a 29-27 lead at halftime.
Austin Hafner drained a three-pointer early in the third quarter to put Osky ahead 30-29, but seconds later, Foster picked up his third foul, then his fourth with 5:07 remaining in the third quarter, forcing him to the bench. Bishop Miege took advantage of his absence, and Oskaloosa’s struggling zone defense to build a 36-29 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Neither team did much offensively in the final quarter as Bishop Miege used a lot of clock time in the “stall” offense forcing Osky to foul and got a 51-42 win.
Oskaloosa’s leading scorer, Cole Henry, was held to just eight points, but a bright spot was Rian Yates, who has struggled shooting since just before Christmas, found his groove draining six three-pointers to lead Osky with 18 points. Foster added 13, and Austin Hafner tallied three. Highly touted Freshman Mark Mitchell led Bishop Miege with 20 points and Josh Earley with eleven.
On our post game show on Osky News Live powered by Thunder Country KIIC, Coach Ryan Parker said Quincy is a hotbed for high school basketball, pointing out all the championship banners and state records posted around the gym, and said to be invited to play in this shootout was an honor for Oskaloosa. “Coming in, we just wanted to compete with Bishop. We got to halftime…we wanted to win. We got into some foul trouble in the second half, but in the end, we showed Oskaloosa well. That’s a really good team we played, a team that has a rich history, with multiple Division One players, to lose to them by nine, this was just a great opportunity for us”.
When asked about the defensive change to zone for Oskaloosa late in the second and much of the second half , Parker said “ We were really in foul trouble, especially with Xavier, and one thing Xavier allows us to do is to put pressure on the perimeter, and without him protecting the rim it was extremely hard for us. I also thought we didn’t match up against them very well, they’ve got a bunch of size, three kids over 6’7 probably, so then Rian Yates has to guard a kid in the post, which Rian’s not used to even though Rian’s 6’5…it was just a bad matchup for us. I thought we played zone pretty well tonight. I thought if we would’ve went man we probably would’ve been in even worse foul trouble than we were”.
Oskaloosa fell to 9-4 overall and faces a crucial week ahead with three conference games. From day one this season Oskaloosa’s goal has been to win the outright Little Hawkeye Conference title. Simply put, that goal can slip away next week…or the Indians could climb back to the top of the LHC. To accomplish that, the Indians must beat Norwalk Tuesday night in Oskaloosa. Norwalk sits atop the conference and beat Osky earlier this season 58-46. Three nights later, Oskaloosa has to pull off a road win at Pella. Thanks to Mother Nature the Indians will get no rest as they travel to Dallas Center-Grimes on Saturday.
Commenting on next week’s brutal schedule, Parker said “Oh Boy, Norwalk at home Tuesday, they have just the one loss in conference, and everybody else has two, at Pella Friday, at DCG Saturday, it’s like an NBA schedule…we’ll find out about ourselves next week.”
