Last night was the first doubleheader of the Oskaloosa basketball season on the Mahaska Zone Network, and there were two very different results for the Indian teams.

The girls team got the action started, and faced a Fairfield team that is ranked #5 in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union rankings to start the season. They showed why, using their athleticism in the full-court press to force 33 Oskaloosa turnovers, including 26 steals that led to easy baskets, en route to a school record in a 103-43 victory. The 103 points is an all-time best in 5-on-5 basketball for the Trojan girls.

Oskaloosa was led by junior Alexis Westercamp, who had 14 points and 6 rebounds, although she was battling foul trouble throughout the game.

Fairfield had three players in double figures, led by sophomore Nicole Buch with 21 and junior Sami Fritz with 20. Oskaloosa is 0-2 to start the season.

In the boys’ game, Oskaloosa started very sluggish with a young and inexperienced group, trailing 17-11 after the first quarter. But in the second quarter, sophomore point guard Spencer Tucker caught fire, pouring in 12 points in the first half to help the Indians take a 31-24 lead into the locker room.

The second half was up and down, but Oskaloosa was able to make free throws down the stretch and hold off a late Fairfield rally to get a 58-54 victory in their first game of the season.

Four Indians were in double figures, led by Tucker who finished with 16. Wade Votroubek scored 13 for the Indians down low. Jack Moore finished strong with 12 after scoring only 2 points in the first half, plagued with foul trouble. Tanner DeKock finished with 10 for Osky.

The Indian defense held Jordan Reid to only 7 points, and zero after the first quarter. Reid was the leading scorer for the Trojans last season and put up 22 points against Osky last season in the opener. Freshman Austin Simpson led the way for Fairfield, scoring 20 points and grabbing 9 rebounds in his debut.

Oskaloosa is back in action Friday against Knoxville, in a game you can hear on 99.5 FM and AM 740 KMZN, the KMZN mobile app, and radiokmzn.com. Coverage starts with the Brown’s Shoe Fit Basketball Countdown at 5:30 PM Friday evening.

In other boys’ scores from last night, Moravia beat Tri-County 61-53, Keota fell to Lone Tree 68-63, Pella Christian took out West Marshall 71-36, and Twin Cedars got a win over Southeast Warren 68-44.

Girls basketball scores from around the state are not available at this time.

Oskaloosa–A tougher opponent entered Penn Gymnasium Saturday, but basically the same result was produced as the Statesmen men’s basketball team dominated Crossroads (Minn.) 123-75 in non-conference play.

For the second night in a row, seven players surpassed the double-digit mark for William Penn (8-1), which has now won eight-straight contests.  It is the fourth time this year, and the third-consecutive matchup, in which the Statesmen have scored over 100 points.

The hosts started slowly, playing even with Crossroads (0-8) at 2-2 through the first three minutes of action.  The navy and gold caught fire quickly thereafter with a 9-0 run and never led by less than nine points again.

William Penn was up 65-38 over the Knights at halftime and slowly pushed the advantage to as high as 48 points late in the matchup.

WPU outshot the Knights 59.0{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b}-46.9{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} and held a 43-28 rebounding margin.  The home squad also forced 23 turnovers (14 by WPU), leading the victors to a 27-17 edge in points off mistakes.

Dondre Alexander (Jr., Iowa City, Iowa, Physical Education) was electric from the field, going 10-for-13 (6-for-9 3-PT) for a game-high 27 points.

All 10 Statesmen cagers who scored shot at least 50{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} from the field, including Steven Roundtree (Sr., Jacksonville, Fla., Physical Education) who was 7-for-9 for 18 points.  The senior also pulled down a game-best nine rebounds in addition to four steals.

Josh Caldwell (Sr., Denver, Colo., Physical Education) was next with 14 points, while Brady Burford (Sr., Chicago, Ill., Physical Education) finished with 13.  The trio ofJessie Pernell (Sr., North Augusta, Ga., Physical Education), Antonio Levy (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Physical Education), and Shane Bosek (Sr., Lowry, Minn., Physical Education) were in double figures as well with 11 points each.

Pernell just missed a double-double with nine assists.  Charles Knowles (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Physical Education) added nine points and Kevin Smith (Jr., Baltimore, Md., Physical Education) concluded the win with seven points.

WPU was 46.7{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} (14-for-30) from the perimeter and 77.3{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} (17-for-22) from the free-throw line.

Next Up: William Penn travels to Des Moines Wednesday to face Grand View in Heart of America Athletic Conference action at 7:30 p.m.

Story provided by Wade Steinlage

Clinton–The shots just would not fall for the William Penn women’s basketball team as it dropped a 61-50 non-conference decision to host Ashford as part of the Ashford Classic Sunday.

The Statesmen (3-5) made only 22.4{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} of their field goals, while the Saints (1-7) shot 37.5{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} on the afternoon.

Already trailing 13-10 after the first 10 minutes of play, WPU took it on the chin in the second quarter to fall behind 34-21 at halftime.

Despite winning the third (13-12) and fourth periods (16-15), the navy and gold could never get closer than a nine-point deficit in the second half.  The Statesmen were also outrebounded 38-36 and lost the free-throw battle (20-11 in made attempts).  The team’s lone saving grace was its ball control as it had just 13 turnovers compared to 17 for AU.

Vashti Nwagbaraocha (Fr., Milwaukee, Wis., Exercise Science) took advantage of numerous trips to the charity stripe, going 10-for-14 at the line en route to a team-high 16 points.  She also paced all participants with 13 rebounds in addition to two blocks and two steals.

Ashlee Harper (Sr., Los Angeles, Calif., Education) was also in double digits with 10 points, while Alyssa Phillips (Jr., Gurnee, Ill., Communications) added eight andKadejah Young (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn., Physical Education) posted four with three assists.

“We did not make shots tonight, but at least we attempted them from the outside,” Head Coach Willie Scott said.  “We now need to get our players to shoot with confidence.  Ashford’s 2-3 zone was very effective against us.  Our strength is in the blocks and we have to make shots on the perimeter and did not do that.”

Next Up: William Penn travels to Des Moines Wednesday to face Grand View in Heart of America Athletic Conference action at 5:30 p.m.

Story provided by Wade Steinlage