By JIM GRIES
NORWALK — Norwalk used a flourish near the end of the first quarter to gain control of its Little Hawkeye Conference opener against Oskaloosa Tuesday night, going on to a 79-62 victory.
The 1-0 Warriors held a slim 12-11 lead following Malaki Wills’ bucket with 2:30 left in the first quarter. Norwalk then scored eight of the final 10 points of the period to go ahead 20-13 and never looked back.
Austin Ward started the run with a basket then Matt Dermody hit a pair of foul shots with under 2 minutes to go in the quarter. Dermody added a field goal and Chris Onstot finished off the 8-2 spurt with two free throws in the closing seconds.
The Warriors continued their scoring surge on a pair of Alex Dorr’s buckets to begin the second quarter and weren’t seriously threatened until midway in the second half.
Oskaloosa interim coach Bryan White thought the team battled hard throughout, but just couldn’t get over the hump.
“We played our hearts out. The guys battled like crazy tonight,” he said. “I told them after the game if we continue to play with this kind of intensity and purpose, we’re going to have a heck of a season. I think we probably would have blown Fairfield out of the water if we had played this well.”
Norwalk slowly increased the lead in the second quarter and led 37-25 at intermission.
It was the status quo in the third quarter as neither team was able to pull away or cut down the deficit for each other.
The closest the Indians got was 50-41 with just under 3 minutes left in the period on a 3-pointer by Andrew Reed. But the Warriors took a 57-43 lead into the fourth and final quarter and it looked like the home team would cruise to the win.
However, Oskaloosa came clawing its way back in the game as Matt Bowie scored on an offensive rebound and Reed put in a layup to cut the margin to 57-47 with 6:19 remaining in the contest. The Warriors maintained that 10-point cushion until the Indians sliced the deficit to 6 with under 3 minutes left. Wiebe Goodyk hit a basket and Reed sanked a pair of free throws to make it 63-57 with 2:45 to go. But Norwalk countered with a clutch 3-pointer by Dermody from the left wing to extend the lead to 9 and the Warriors never looked back.
“Norwalk’s got an outstanding team,” White said. “They return all five starters along with three bench guys so they’ve got at least seven, eight guys with a lot of varsity experience and we’ve basically got three or four. That makes a big difference and it was a fun environment. The kids had to enjoy this type of atmosphere. It felt like a tournament atmosphere. To get that this early in the season should do wonders for us.”
Foul trouble created plenty of problems for the Indians as Bowie, Reed, Jordan Shrago and Mitchell Tucker were all asked to leave the playing floor after picking up their fifth fouls in the fourth quarter.
Oskaloosa gets back to LHC action Friday night with a home matchup with Pella.
Norwalk 79, Oskaloosa 62
Osky 13 12 19 18 — 62
Nor 20 17 20 22 — 79
OSKALOOSA (62) — Wiebe Goodyk 6 3-6 16, Matt Bowie 3 2-6 9, Cole Converse 1 0-0 2, Andrew Reed 6 6-8 19, Jordan Shrago 3 0-0 6, Malaki Wills 2 0-2 4, Mitchell Tucker 3 0-0 0, Kyle Ford 0 0-2 0, Taylor Schelker 0 0-0 0, Michael Youngblut 0 0-0 0, Blake Engelhoven 0 0-0 0, Alex Knoot 0 0-0 0. totals 24 11-24 62.
3-point goals — 3 (Goodyk, Bowie, Reed). Rebounds — 30 (Bowie 8, Goodyk 6). Steals — 8 (Goodyk 3). Assists — 3 (Tucker 2). Block — 1 (Wills). Fouled out — Bowie, Shrago, Tucker. Reed. Turnovers — 18.
