The Lake Today

Last week the Osage Lady Indians took a pair of victories in a 61-27 routing of Warsaw at home and a 60-42 win over Richland on the road.

On Jan. 30, the ladies hosted the Warsaw Wildcats and took their 3-0 conference record with them.

Daisy Ralston led the ladies with a season high best of 16 points, including four 3-pointers.

“I don’t know what got into Daisy, but it was quite a night,” said Osage coach Scott Rowland. “She was four for five behind the arc, made her only 2-point shot, and made both free throws.”

Osage (10-7, 3-0 in conference) led by nine after the first quarter, and had a 20-point advantage at the half. By the start of the fourth quarter they were up by 31 points.

“There is no way I could be displeased with any aspect of our performance,” said Rowland. “It was a great team win. This is the fifth or sixth time a different player has led scoring; we’re very proud of that.”

The girls shot 63 percent from the field, 50 percent from the 3-point line, and 63 percent from the free-throw line.

“We talked about it before the game, that we needed a good effort so the last two conference games are important,” Rowland said. “I thought our pressure and switching defenses kept them a bit off balance.”

This win kept their hopes for a conference title alive, with games against California and Eldon still to come.

Ralston led the Indians with 16 points followed by Summer Dean with 13. Shelynna Luttrell and Izzy Morris both added eight, Tara Allman had seven points and Kelsey Abbott finished with six. Tiffany Urwiler rounded it out with a three-point contribution.

“Shelynna and Kelsey drawing fouls in the first half was key,” said Rowland. “Summer dished out four assists and Tiff had seven, then Izzy scoring eight off the bench was a nice bonus.”

On Thursday, the Lady Indians traveled to Richland and grabbed another victory from a tough competitor, beating the Bears 60-42.

Once again the ladies took an early lead and were up 35-22 at the break. They all but shut down the Richland offense in the third quarter, holding them to only three points and taking a 48-25 lead into the final period.

Richland rallied as the bench players started rotating in and they outscored Osage in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead.

Osage was on the road Monday with a matchup at Southern Boone County in Ashland. They will host Hallsville on Thursday and Iberia on Feb. 13. Senior night honors take place in the Valentine’s Day matchup with California, and the Lady Indians finish their regular season at Eldon on Feb. 16.

The district tournament will be held in Eldon this year during the week of Feb. 20.