Osmond Lady Tigers fall in subdistrict action
HARTINGTON – The Osmond Lady Tigers traveled to Hartington last week for subdistrict play, facing Tri-County Northeast on Tuesday and Hartington Cedar Catholic in the finals on Thursday.
Osmond vs. Tri-County Northeast
The Lady Tigers began postseason play on Tuesday, Feb. 15, taking on the Wolfpack of Tri-County Northeast (Emerson-Hubbard/ Allen). In preparing for the game, the Lady Tigers had practiced hard to stop the twopronged attack of the Wolfpack — No. 22 Jordyn Carr and No. 5 Ryanne Mackling. These two had av
These two had averaged 75% of their team’s scoring during the season and so making it a point to contain them was Osmond’s focus in practice.
The first quarter saw Osmond jump out to a commanding 17-6 lead with a variety of Lady Tigers making an impact on the game early. The second quarter saw the Wolfpack make small runs of their own, but the Lady Tigers were up to the challenge, matching the Wolfpack’s runs with ones of their own and going into halftime with a 31-18 lead.
At halftime, the message was pretty simple — keep up the intensity that Osmond showed early on and do not let up. Tri-County NE is a team that can get themselves back into a game pretty quickly. The Lady Tigers answered the call perfectly, outscoring the Wolfpack 34-23 in the second half and winning the game handily by a score of 65-41.
Leading Osmond in points was Cali Gutz (20), followed by Kiera Moes and Grace Gansebom with (9) each. On the boards, Osmond was led by Kiera Moes with 10 and Macy Aschoff with 6.
“This was a fun game to coach and, for the players, to play,” Coach David Schmit said. “The girls really were focused on the game plan and did an excellent job. A combination of Cali Gutz, Grace Gansebom, Keli Aschoff and Sophia Gansebom had the assignment of guarding No. 5 or No. 22 the entire night and did so well. Another thing that was exciting about this game is the roles that we filled. Kiera has been our leading scorer all year (averaging 14.8 points per game) but with teams keeping a closer eye on her, it has opened up shots for others and Cali really capitalized tonight. I give our entire team credit tonight, though. Without everyone fulfilling their role, whether it be on the court or the energy from the bench, a lot of what we do would be much tougher of a task. It really demonstrates how unselfish our team is and how much they work for each other.”
Score by Quarter
Osmond 17 14 20 14 = 65
Tri-County 6 12 13 10 = 41
Osmond vs. Cedar Catholic
The Lady Tigers played the subdistrict final game against the host school, Hartington Cedar Catholic. Having seen the Trojans earlier in the year and falling by 24 points, the girls had a ton of motivation to even the score and continue their special season.
The first quarter was characterized by Cedar’s press and capitalizing on a couple Lady Tiger mistakes but, to our girls’ credit, they did not panic and went into the quarter break down 14-7. As Osmond broke the huddle to start the second quarter, the look in each players’ eyes was not one of “Oh no!” but rather “We got this!”
The second quarter saw a more calm and collected Osmond team matching Cedar’s intensity every step of the way. The Lady Tigers went into halftime down 21-15 but with a ton of confidence to turn the tables and make a run of their own the second half. At halftime, the message was pretty simple – take control!
The Lady Tigers had proven during the first half that they were capable, but needed it to be more consistent and tighten up a few things that they needed to improve. Osmond caught fire shooting in the second half and really locked down even more defensively as well, ending the third quarter winning by a score of 34-32.
The message going into the fourth quarter was to “empty the tank” and dig deeper, because in a game like this, everyone’s tired by now, but it’s finding that little extra that makes the difference. The Osmond girls battled like crazy and never once backed down – which has been the standard all year long! Unfortunately, Cedar made a couple plays more than Osmond did in under a minute to win the game 49-46.
Osmond was led in points by Kiera Moes with 16 and Grace Gansebom with 13, and on the boards by Kiera Moes with 10 and Grace Gansebom with 7. Kiera recorded her seventh double-double of the season.
Coach Schmit commented, “This one is hard to put into words what really needs to be said. I can’t say enough about the fight of our team throughout the season. We asked them to be fighters and be the aggressors each game that we played and I really feel that they did this each and every game. They poured a lot into each practice and game and that’s a fun thing, as a coach, to watch because you know it will pay dividends on the court as well as prove helpful in life. We had a team that arguably could play C2 basketball on the ropes the entire game when it could be said that they weren’t expecting the kind of fight that we bring to the table. There’s nothing to hang our heads about, though – we left everything on the court!
“Thank you to our fans who were awesome throughout the season and especially tonight! To our parents, thank you for the opportunity to coach your daughters this season. They are a great group of athletes and better people! We have a lot of young talent coming back next year and a senior-to-be leader in Cali Gutz who will be a key part of what we do going forward.”
Score by Quarter
Osmond 7 8 19 12 = 46
Hartington CC 14 7 11 17 = 49
