OSKALOOSA — When a team puts up the first 12 points of the game, that’s never a good sign for the other team.

Little Hawkeye Conference leader Norwalk showed why it has the best record in the conference by getting the quick 12-0 lead and coasted to a 76-32 triumph of Oskaloosa Tuesday night.

The win sends Norwalk’s record to 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the conference while the Indians drop to 2-9 and 1-5.

Spearheading the Norwalk charge was 6-foot-8 center Carson Miller as he had six of his 16 points in the opening 3 minutes.

He converted four straight chances from the charity stripe then added an offensive put-back while Grant Wright drained a 3-pointer and Austin LaVelle had a bucket and a free throw for the 12-0 cushion and the Warriors were not seriously challenged after that.

Norwalk, which has won five in a row, knocked down 11 3-pointers with Wright getting six of them as Oskaloosa couldn’t find an answer after getting behind early.

The Warriors were able to keep control of the game by controlling the backboards, grabbing nearly 40 rebounds to the Indians’ 21.

“We knew we would struggle rebounding, but we didn’t do a good job of boxing out,” Oskaloosa coach Zach Tremmel said. “When you’ve got a guy (Miller) that big, you’ve got to put bodies on him. We didn’t box him out or get out on the shooters quick enough. They’re a good team and they’re going to put you away if you don’t come out and play hard.”

The Indians finally got on the scoreboard with at 4:35 mark on a 3 from Jordan Lowry. He then added his last three points of the night moments later and a Clay Tucker 3-ball cut the deficit in half at 18-9.

Miller and Wright took turns in getting the Warriors a double-digit lead early in the second quarter. Miller had a pair of baskets while Wright drilled two 3-pointers to push the margin to 15 at 31-16.

After that, Norwalk was able to play nearly everyone on the roster and all but two of those players scored.

The Warriors used a tenacious defense on Oskaloosa’s Tyce Sarver, who came into the game averaging 15.3 points a game.

On this night, Sarver had problems getting a shot and then making them. He attempted five shots from the floor, hitting two of them, to finish with just five points. Sarver also had five points in a loss to Mount Pleasant last month.

“They shut Tyce down and we’ve got to get scoring from other aspects and I thought some of our sophomores played hard and gave us some good minutes,” Tremmel said.

Oskaloosa hopes to snap the five-game losing skid Friday at home against Pella.

 

Norwalk 76, Oskaloosa 32

N    21    22    19    14    —    76

O    13    6    6    7    —    32

NORWALK (76) — Kolby Greenslade 2 2-2 5, Grant Wright 6 1-2 19, Austin LaVelle 5 3-5 9, Nick Rosonke 2 0-0 6, Carson Miller 6 4-7 16, Kaleb Dammeier 2 01 4, Josh Lippert 1 0-2 2, Justin Pappan 1 0-0 3, Tyler Shilling 2 0-2 5, Sonny Onken 2 1-3 5, Tyler French 1 0-0 2. Totals 28 9-22 76.

3-point goals — 11 (Wright 6, Rosonke 2, Greenslade 1, Pappan 1, Shilling 1). Total fouls — 13. Turnovers — 7.

OSKALOOSA (32) — Drew Richmond 0-2 0-0 0, Clay Tucker 2-5 0-0 5, Tyce Sarver 2-5 0-0 5, Austin Redlich 1-6 0-0 0, Ki-Jana DeJong 1-2 2-4 4, Jordan Lowry 2-5 0-0 6, Nick Waters 0-0 1-2 1, Spencer Medlin 1-2 0-1 2, Ryder Curtis 0-0 1-2 1, Nate Van Veldhuizen 1-1 0-0 2, Cayden Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Max Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Reiter 1-8 2-4 4, Steven Howie 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 11-39 6-13 32.

3-point goals — 4-13 (Lowry 2-4, Tucker 1-3, Sarver 1-2, Redlich 0-2, Reiter 0-2). Rebounds — 21 (Lowry 5, Tucker 4, Reiter 4, Sarver 2, Curtis 2, DeJong 2, Richmond 1, Redlich 1). Steals — 3 (Tucker, Sarver, DeJong). Assists — 8 (Tucker 4, Redlich 2, Reiter 1, Sarver 1). Blocks — 5 (Reiter 3, Tucker 1, Curtis 1). Total fouls — 14. Turnovers — 15.