Osmond Lady Tigers are Randolph tourney champions
RANDOLPH – The Osmond Lady Tigers traveled to Randolph for their annual holiday tournament and returned as tournament champions.
Osmond 51, Winside 24
Osmond returned to the court after the five-day moratorium on Tuesday, Dec. 28, to participate in the Randolph Holiday Tournament. Their firstround draw was the Wildcats from Winside.
Osmond had seen Winside three times during the course of the summer and knew from those experiences that they’d need to play their best basketball to make sure to not let them stay in the game too long.
The Lady Tigers responded to this challenge quite well, holding the Wildcats to four first-half points, taking a 25-4 halftime lead. As the second half progressed, Osmond was able to get some of its younger players some game experience, of which quite a bit was learned.
The team discussed the need to continue to play hard regardless of the score and play the style of basketball that they do at all times. Osmond outscored the Wildcats 26-20 in the second half to win the game 51-24.
Osmond was led in points by Kiera Moes with 12 and Grace Gansebom with 9. They were led in rebounds by Kiera Moes with 7, and Tessa Gardner and Macy Aschoff, both with 5.
Coach David Schmit commented, “We had talked in practice about our experiences with Winside and needing to get out to a fast start to take away any opportunity for Winside to stay in the game. The girls played very aggressively and really attacked on offense! I’m proud of our efforts to right the ship coming off two tough losses in our last two games. We would need an equally as complete of an effort in the championship game to win the tournament.”
Score by Quarter
Osmond 8 17 16 10 = 51
Winside 0 4 8 12 = 24
BOX SCORE
FG FT Reb Pts
K. Aschoff 2-7 1-4 1 6
G. Gansebom 3-8 3-4 4 9
Vinson 1-2 0-0 0 3
Gutz 3-7 0-0 1 6
Krienert 0-1 0-0 1 0
J. Kumm 0-2 0-0 2 0
S. Gansebom 2-10 1-1 1 5
B. Kumm 0-0 0-0 0 0
Schmit 1-5 0-0 2 2
M. Aschoff 1-4 0-0 5 2
Moes 5-13 2-7 7 12
Gardner 1-2 2-2 5 4
Wagner 1-2 0-1 2 2
Osmond 20-63 9-19 31 51
Osmond 50, Stuart 37
Fresh off of a Round 1 victory over Winside, the Lady Tigers took on a very tough and talented Stuart Broncos team on Wednesday, Dec. 29. Osmond had geared some of their preparation on Monday toward a possible matchup with Stuart and this paid off quite a bit.
Throughout the first quarter, the Lady Tigers went back and forth with Stuart on made baskets and gritty possessions. The second quarter was much the same way with teams exchanging baskets and putting the pressure on the other to stay with it. Osmond went into the locker room up one, 27-26.
At halftime, Osmond made an adjustment that proved to be the difference-maker in the game. Stuart’s No. 14, Lexi Schroeder, has really done a lot for them during the season and so the Lady Tigers decided to box-and-one her. These duties went to Cali Gutz to shut her down and Cali did a fantastic job alongside the help of her teammates.
Lexi had 17 first-half points and that’s what she ended with as well. The Lady Tigers used this momentum to outscore the Broncos 23-11 and win the game and the tournament championship for the third year in a row by the score of 50-37.
Osmond was led in points by Kiera Moes with 19 and Macy Aschoff with 10. Macy also completed her first double-double of the season by leading Osmond with 10 rebounds, followed by Grace Gansebom with nine boards.
“Games like this are challenging when the other team has a dominant player or players that can take over a game at any moment,” said Coach Schmit. “We don’t normally use ‘junk’ defenses like a box-and-one, but after visiting with some other coaches that have played Stuart, this seemed like the best option. Cali Gutz has often drawn their best player for her defensive assignment and we versed this in practice that she may have to take Lexi Schroeder in a box-and-one situation.
“Cali did a great job of shutting Lexi down and that allowed us to, as a collective team, open the game up a bit. Macy also did a great job pulling down boards for us and giving us a great effort in the post. I could say a lot of good things about our team from this game, especially going nearly 80% from the free throw line (22-28). Hopefully we can keep this momentum going into future games.”
