By JIM GRIES
NORWALK — Oskaloosa girls basketball coach Burdette Brown had one word to say after watching his Indians fall to 0-4 with a 58-29 loss to Norwalk in the teams’ Little Hawkeye Conference opener Tuesday night — “Ouch.”
The Indians stayed with the Warriors (1-1) for much of the opening quarter and actually held a 7-5 lead on a basket by Sarah Hynick with 2:07 left in the period.
But Norwalk’s press eventually wore down Oskaloosa, causing 32 turnovers by the Indians.
“The press didn’t affect us early in the first quarter because we had our heads screwed on,” Brown said. “We broke the press and Jayce Carter made some nice passes breaking that press. Eventually we lost our heads and lost control of their press. Norwalk’s a team that’s going to press you nonstop and sooner of later, that’s going to get to you if you lose your head and we lost our head a few times.”
Oskaloosa had 11 turnovers in the second quarter which saw it convert just two shots into baskets.
The Warriors, on the other hand, tallied 18 points in the second quarter and led 29-14 at halftime.
Things didn’t get much better for the Indians in the second half as they turned the ball over on four straight trips down the floor and was held scoreless for the first four minutes of the third period. Megan Gott stopped the drought with a free throw at the 4:04 mark then Hynick hit a shot with 1:25 remaining in the quarter for Oskaloosa’s first field goal of the second half.
Oskaloosa kept trying to cut a big chunk off the Warriors’ lead, but was unable to do so. Yet, Brown liked how hard his team battled in the final quarter.
“The girls still played and diving after balls,” he said. “We started to get the ball underneath, which is what we’ve been trying to do all year long. Hopefully now we can start to see if we can get that ball underneath consistently and do some good things.”
Oskaloosa gets a couple of days off until hosting Pella on Friday/
Norwalk 58, Oskaloosa 29
Osky 7 7 5 10 — 29
Nor 11 18 13 16 — 58
OSKALOOSA (29) — Allison Rohloff 1 0-0 2, Emily Street 0 3-4 3, Megan Gott 3 4-6 10, Sarah Hynick 3 1-1 7, Jayce Carter 2 3-4 7, LeAnan White 0 0-0 0, Cortney Major 0 0-0 0, Dana Korell 0 0-0 0, Heather Sereg 0 0-0 0, Lorrie Hamilton 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 11-15 29.
Rebounds — 16 (Hynick 5, Rohloff 4). Assists — 3 (Carter, Gott, Hynick). Fouled out — Carter. Total fouls — 15. Turnovers — 32.
NORWALK (58) — Tori Mateer 4, Megan Patava 4, Juliana Pearson 16, Makenzie Reed 8, Ashley Lutrick 10, Maggie Scholer 11, Brianna McAninch 2, Rachel Logan 4.
3-point goals — 3 (Pearson, Lutrick, Scholer.
