Lady Tigers are champs of Randolph Holiday Tourney

(By Coach David Schmit)

RANDOLPH — The Osmond Lady Tigers participated in the Randolph Holiday Tournament on Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 30 and 31.

First Round

After having the first round of the tournament delayed because of weather, the Lady Tigers tipped off the first round against the Stuart Lady Broncos.

Coming into the game the concern was, having not played in close to two weeks, what our overall play would look like. We knew Stuart was going to be a lot like Creighton — having one player that really stood out alongside some respectable role players.

The game was very back-and-forth throughout the first half with the Lady Tigers heading into halftime possessing a slim three-point lead. Our goal was to slow down Stuart’s No. 14 Lexi Schroeder.

Though she (Schroeder) had 14 of their 17 points, it really felt as though we had done a decent job on her. Cali Gutz and Grace Gansebom were tasked throughout this game with containing Schroeder and those two girls did a great job of keeping her in check and making their role players attempt to beat us.

Coming out of halftime, I challenged the girls with finding that fight and intensity that showed up in our win against Creighton and bringing that into the second half. The second half played out a lot like the first, but what proved to be the difference was our girls’ commitment to getting more downhill on offense and playing tougher defense.

The Lady Tigers finished off the Broncos in the second half as a result of some clutch shots and free throws to seal the deal.

Leading us in points was Kiera Moes with 15, followed by Macy Aschoff (9) and Grace Gansebom (7). While Macy Aschoff has been a leader for us on both ends of the floor and pulls down a lot of rebounds for us, we had two guards, Elisa Herrera and Kiera Moes, lead us in rebounds with both having seven boards!

I’m proud of our girls for showing some grit and perseverance through some of the rough and physical play we encountered. We found opportunities to sink some key shots and put in the free throws when it mattered.

Each game, our girls continue to make noticeable improvement and, maybe most of all, show they won’t give up. They’re a very resilient group and that’s going to serve us well going forward.

Score by Quarter

Osmond 9 11 13 9 = 42

Stuart 6 11 8 12 = 37

BOX SCORE

FG FT Reb Pts

Gansebom 2-6 1-4 4 7

Herrera 0-6 1-2 7 1

Gutz 2-7 0-0 4 4

Beacom 0-0 0-0 0 0

Schmit 2-6 1-2 0 6

Aschoff 4-7 1-2 3 9

H. Krienert 0-0 0-0 1 0

Moes 5-14 4-6 7 15

Osmond 15-46 8-16 26 42

Second Round

The Lady Tigers, having advanced to the championship of the Randolph Holiday Tournament, put themselves in a position to defend their tournament championship from last year.

In the first half of our game against Randolph, it could be argued that this was our roughest two quarters of the year. Through some mistakes on both ends of the floor, we went into halftime tied at 16.

It certainly felt like we were in a much worse position than what the scoreboard had shown. However, as we talked about in the locker room, resilient teams fight through tough patches and find a way to keep themselves in the game.

We consistently emphasize winning the first three minutes of the third quarter as that usually dictates a lot about how the second half will go. To our girls’ credit, they won this part of the game emphatically. We ended the third quarter leading Randolph 29-23. You could see it in our girls’ eyes that they were going to finish this thing off despite being a little tired.

The Lady Tigers, behind three players in double figures for points — Grace Gansebom (16), Kiera Moes (15), and Cali Gutz (10) — turned away the Lady Cardinals by a final of 45-30 to become back-to-back champions of the Randolph Holiday Tournament.

The ability for our girls to overcome a first half like we did and “flip the switch” in the second half is something that makes any coach excited and proud. We ran into a little foul trouble with Macy Aschoff in the first quarter for which, to their credit, Hayle Krienert and Lexi Beacom filled in very well and did some good things for us.

There definitely was a bad taste in our mouths after the first game of the year and I could just see as each game progressed that we were going to be in a good position, if we saw Randolph again, to have some success. We have things to work on going forward, but I’m quite proud of the girls’ resiliency and overall progress.

We looked to continue this into our next game when we headed to Hartington to take on Cedar Catholic on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Score by Quarter

Osmond 4 12 13 16 = 45

Randolph 5 11 7 7 = 30

BOX SCORE

FG FT Reb Pts

Gansebom 5-14 3-6 7 16

Herrera 0-1 0-0 3 0

Gutz 4-7 0-1 7 10

C. Krienert 0-0 0-0 0 0

Beacom 0-1 0-0 0 0

Vinson 0-0 0-0 1 0