By Sam Parsons
On Friday night, Oskaloosa hosted Dallas Center-Grimes for a conference girls and boys basketball doubleheader, with the girls facing one of the top teams in the state and the boys looking for a bounce-back game against the Mustangs.
Girls Game
Oskaloosa’s girls faced a difficult task: the #4 ranked Mustangs came to town and they were aiming to continue their dominance over much of the conference. They ended up doing just that.
The Indians found themselves down 12-7 late in the first quarter, being able to generate a little bit of offense against a disruptive Mustang defense, but from there, DCG went on a 22-2 run over the rest of the first half. It was 34-9 at halftime, and a running clock was forced by the 3rd quarter. Oskaloosa once again struggled at the free throw line, sinking just 4 of 12 attempts as a team from the charity stripe.
Their ongoing free throw struggles were exacerbated by the DCG defense forcing a total of 26 turnovers. Oskaloosa ended up shooting just 18.8% (6/32) from the field and the final score was 60-17 in favor of the Mustangs. Osky’s record dropped to 3-13 on the season, and Friday night marked their 8th consecutive loss since returning from winter break.
Boys Game
The nightcap of Friday night’s doubleheader was a pivotal one for both Oskaloosa (9-6) and Dallas Center-Grimes (8-5). Osky’s boys were in need of a confidence boost after dropping 4 of their previous 5 games, while DCG was hoping to stay within shouting distance of 1st place in the Little Hawkeye Conference standings.
As they have in a growing number of games this year, Oskaloosa found themselves down early when DCG jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the first quarter. A slow start offensively for the Indians was met by a fast-paced DCG attack that claimed the momentum for a few minutes after tip-off.
The Indians, however, were able to right the ship. They outscored DCG 19-12 over the remainder of the 1st half and were able to take a tie game (38-38) into the fourth quarter.
Throughout the game, the sense of urgency displayed by the Indians was clear as they were attempting to beat the Mustangs for the first time since 2019. They had lost 13 straight games against DCG prior to Friday night, but senior guard Heavon Knox said that the team wasn’t so focused on the name of the team they were up against.
“We’re not really looking at it as DCG, because this Oskaloosa basketball team is coming in kind of different this year,” said Knox after the game. “We’re not really focused on the teams we’re beating, we’re focused on just beating them, and getting wins.”
The Indians proceeded to outplay the Mustangs on both ends of the floor in the final quarter. For the game, the Indians out-rebounded the Mustangs 24-17, despite the Mustangs possessing more raw size; and the Indians were the better shooting team from 3-point range, knocking down 7 of 18 attempts (38.9%), compared to the 5 of 21 (23.8%) converted by DCG. Oskaloosa seized the lead early in the 4th quarter and staved off the comeback efforts mounted by the Mustangs to win 56-51.
Despite not dwelling on their competition, Knox took plenty of joy in helping to defeat a team that had the Indians’ number for several years.
“It feels fantastic,” he said. “Especially coming off last week, we had a little bump in the road. I feel like today, we really brought back some of the momentum we had back from the Pella game and those past games.”
Oskaloosa’s win brought their record to 10-6 on the season and 4-5 in conference play; DCG dropped to 8-6 with a 5-3 record in the conference.
The Indians will stay home on Tuesday night (2/3/26) for their second matchup against the Pella Dutch. Coverage will air on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com starting at approximately 5:45pm.