Oskaloosa Freshmen Have Busy Week

by Alex DeJong

Last week the Oskaloosa boys freshman team had a long road trip to Mt. Pleasant taking on the MTP Panthers. You could tell it was a long bus ride because the energy wasn’t all there at the beginning of the game as we let them hang around in the first half. At half time Osky led 25-18. In the second half the third quarter was pretty even. In the fourth the energy was much better and the defense really stepped up. Tate Peterson forced the panthers to turn the ball over which led to some fast break opportunities for us. Osky ended up pulling away, winning 55-45 lead by Kayne Boender with 21 points. Heavon Knox was the second leading scorer with 10 points followed by Landon Romas with 9 points.

@ Pella 1/19/23
After Mount Pleasant the boys had a quick turnaround facing a really really tough Pella team. To say the least, it just wasn’t our night. We came out really sloppy and the effort wasn’t there. We did a poor job of not contesting 3s, giving up offensive rebounds and didn’t play together on offense and the result showed. The final score was 42-81. “I told the guys after the game to not let this game define who they are. Flush this one, learn from it and let’s move on as we are much better than that.” This moved the Freshman record to 7-5 on the season. Kayne Boender led the team in scoring with 19 points. Dane VanMersbergen had 8 points followed by Ethan Stek with 7 points.

VS Indianola 1/23/23
Last night the guys looked to bounce back trying to get the sweep on the season against Indianola. The first time we played them we won in OT 68-64. Indianola got off to a hot start jumping out to a 10 point lead early. However that didn’t faze the Indians as they battled back cutting the lead to 6 at halftime getting it to 27-33. The second half the guys battled but couldn’t make the comeback. We started forcing up some bad shots which led to some fast break baskets for Indianola. “I was proud of the ways the guys battled and fought back. If we would have worked to get better shots instead of forcing, the score may have been a little different.” Osky fell 52-65. Osky was missing Landon Romas on the night due to an injury. We are hoping for positive results and a healthy recovery! Top Producers on the night: Kayne Boender with 24 points. Heavon Knox: 11 Points. Tate Peterson: 4 Points

This moves the freshman record to 7-6 on the season and looked to get a big win on Friday @ DCG.