By Sam Parsons

The Oskaloosa Indians traveled to Newton on Friday night for a Little Hawkeye Conference basketball doubleheader. The girls entered at 5-4, hoping to shake off a 3-game losing streak, while the boys were 3-5 going into the night’s action.

Girls Game

From the opening whistle, the Newton Cardinals’ M.O. was clear: they were going to do everything they could to limit Oskaloosa’s Dasia Foster.

The opener of Friday night’s doubleheader was defined by the Cardinals’ approach to the Indians’ senior center. Starting in the first offensive possession, and continuing throughout the game, the Cardinals slapped a true double team on Foster: everywhere she went, she had two players in her hip pockets. As Foster entered the game averaging 19.6 points per game, the strategy was sound, but risky: it essentially left the remainder of Oskaloosa’s half-court offense in a 4-on-3 situation.

However, the Indians were not able to take advantage of the extra space allotted on the floor for most of Friday night. Given space to attempt a plethora of open three-pointers, the Indians made those attempts, but came up empty a few too many times, only draining 3 triples as a team on the night. Sophomore Naomi Cole accounted for two of the successful 3-pointers on her way to a team-high 12 points, but the hit rate for Osky as a team was simply too low to mount an effective offensive attack.

“[We were] just unsure of what we wanted to do when they took our best player away,” said coach TC Cunningham after the game. “…we had a gameplan for it, we just didn’t knock down our outside shots. So if your outside shots are not falling, then it’s one-and-done, because they have the advantage on the inside…we got the shots we wanted with what they were doing, but just couldn’t knock them down.”

Oskaloosa was limited to just 5 points in both the first and fourth quarters on their way to scoring 29 points in the game. The Indians’ defense largely succeeded in limiting the Cardinals all game, but not enough to overcome the low offensive output, and the final score was 36-29 Newton. The loss set the Indians back to 5-5 and marks their 5th loss in their last 6 games, which have been by a combined 24 points.

Boys Game

Oskaloosa’s boys were searching for a strong bounce-back effort after arguably their worst game of the season on Tuesday night versus Pella. They got exactly what they were looking for, as the team had a different feel to it on Friday night, and the energy was palpable immediately.

In the first quarter, Heavon Knox and Xavier Edwards went to work by knocking down baskets at all three levels on their way to helping the Indians put up one of their most productive quarters of the season. At the end of the first, the Indians led 18-11.

From there, it was the Indians’ defense that made the difference: Oskaloosa limited Newton to just a 28.8% shooting percentage from the field and 23.8% from downtown. Easy buckets were nonexistent for the Cardinals as the Indians protected the rim with ferocity and guarded the perimeter with focus. The Cardinals were a good outside shooting team entering Friday night’s contest, with multiple starters shooting 40+% from deep, but the Indians were able to take that threat away.

“Compared to the Pella game from Tuesday, our defense was phenomenal,” said Oskaloosa senior Xavier Edwards following the game. “Amazing energy, I loved to see it, it was probably the best defense we’ve had all year…at the start of it, our hands were off, we were moving our feet, we were playing great defense, and that’s exactly what we were practicing for the entire past two days.”

Offensively, Knox and Edwards continued to score at highly efficient clips in quarters 2-4 to help the Indians stave off any potential comeback runs. Knox finished the night going 9/15 from the floor and 4/6 from deep on his way to 24 points, while Edwards notched 13 points and 9 rebounds on 6/9 shooting. Sophomore Tommy North chipped in with 11 points on 5/10 shooting from the field. The Indians finished the night with a 56.1% FG%, which was their highest mark of the season, and they won the game 55-45, picking up their first conference victory of the campaign.

Oskaloosa’s girls and boys will be back in action with a doubleheader versus Ottumwa on Tuesday night (1/14). Coverage of those games can be heard on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com.