By Sam Parsons
Oskaloosa’s boys basketball team returned to the hardwood on Monday night in a non-conference duel with the 10-2 Keokuk Chiefs.
The Indians were coming off their first loss since returning from winter break, a 66-52 setback at Norwalk on Friday night. That left them with an 8-3 record, which was still good enough to be ranked #10 among 3A teams by the IHSAA, but getting back to their winning ways was not going to be an easy task with Keokuk bringing one of the best players in the state into town.
Early in the game, Chiefs star Jaxon Clark proved difficult to stop and Keokuk jumped out to a 23-13 lead in the 2nd quarter. But Oskaloosa was able to regroup quickly and went on an 11-0 run to take a 24-23 lead. At halftime, Keokuk held a narrow 34-30 lead, but the Indians had begun to find their stride on offense by using a lot of precise ball movement and spreading the ball around to different players.
That newfound momentum sustained itself in the 3rd quarter for Oskaloosa, when they outscored the Chiefs by 8 points to surge ahead to a 51-47 advantage.
Indians senior Landon Romas said after the game that the team’s ability to bounce back from adversity stems from staying level-headed in both good and bad moments.
“Never get too high, never get too low. That’s what we try to do,” said Romas. “We had some big plays, some guys getting on the rim. But even when that happens, we try to stay as cool and collected as we can.”
The close margin entering the 4th quarter set the stage for a dramatic finish. The Indians and Chiefs battled back and forth, with the Chiefs tying the game on one occasion, but excellent defense on Clark down the stretch, coupled with pristine ball movement on the offensive end, allowed the Indians to hold a lead going into crunch time.
With 10 seconds to go, the Chiefs had the ball with a chance to tie the game or win it. That led to a sequence where they missed a 3-pointer, Clark grabbed the offensive rebound, missed the putback, grabbed another offensive board, and missed another putback to end the game. Oskaloosa was victorious at the final buzzer, 63-61.
The fact that Keokuk was the team that ended Oskaloosa’s season in the playoffs last year? That could only serve as extra motivation.
“Definitely it was in the back of everybody’s mind,” Romas said. “But we try to keep it one game at a time…we came out and executed tonight, and I’m super happy and proud of the guys.”
Romas finished the game with 10 points, making him one of four Indians to record double digit points. Tyler Edgar led the team with 16 points, while Ethan Stek tallied 15 and Tommy North notched 10.
Osky’s win over Keokuk improves their record to 9-3. They will host Mount Pleasant tonight (1/20) before traveling to Pella Christian on Friday night for their next conference game. Friday night’s action will be a girls and boys doubleheader which will air on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com starting at around 5:45pm.
