By Sam Parsons
Oskaloosa’s girls basketball team was back in action on Tuesday night in a non-conference game against Mount Pleasant after suffering back-to-back losses against Pella Christian and Grinnell on Friday and Monday night. The team found itself trailing for much of the contest, but in the end, an impressive comeback effort brought their record back to .500.
The game began as a back-and-forth affair. Mount Pleasant jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead before Oskaloosa answered with a run of their own and led 17-13 at the end of the first quarter. However, the Panthers regained the lead in the second quarter, possessing a 32-28 lead at halftime. The Panthers had a lot of success getting to the free throw line, while the Indians struggled to make their shots at the charity stripe when they got there.
The second half was a similar story, though the Panthers were in the lead the vast majority of the time. Osky was never able to find their groove at the free throw line – they finished 3/12 shooting free throws, compared to a 13/21 mark for Mount Pleasant – but, fortunately, it didn’t matter. Improved defense in the second half and timely shots from guards Naomi and Porah Cole kept the Indians in the game.
“We all know we’re capable of scoring,” Naomi Cole said after the game. “We just get down on ourselves sometimes, so I think the main thing was confidence, and knowing that we all are capable of scoring and we just needed to work as a team.”
Down the stretch in the 4th quarter, the Indians found themselves trailing by 4 points. Senior Loghan Edgar knocked down a corner three to bring the Indians within one, and the Panthers responded quickly with 2 points to make it a 3 point margin.
That set the stage for an exciting finish: Naomi Cole, who finished the game with a team-high 20 points, converted a layup with roughly 35 seconds left on the clock to make it 50-49 Mount Pleasant. Instead of fouling with no shot clock left, Cole proceeded to intercept a pass in the Panther backcourt and gave the ball to Porah Cole down low. Porah then knocked down the clutch layup with less than 10 seconds to go to put the Indians on top, and they didn’t give the Panthers a good shot to reclaim the lead before the end, sealing a 51-50 victory.
“It definitely feels good coming off those two losses,” said senior forward Leah Cohrt. “We were really down as a team, but I think we kind of just flushed them and said, ‘This is one we can win, so we gotta come out with our all.'”
Oskaloosa (2-2) will host Indianola on Friday night for another conference girls/boys doubleheader. Coverage will be live on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com starting at around 5:45pm.
