Okoboji beat Harris-Lake Park 48-40 in a hard fought, non-conference game on Friday in Milford. The Wolves got out of the gate quickly and jumped to a 10-4 lead that would balloon up to 15-4 before the Pioneers would trim it to 15-8 at the end of the first quarter. Okoboji would continue to chip away in the second quarter and cut the H-LP lead to 19-16 at halftime. Both teams kept up the defensive pressure in the third quarter as points were hard to come by. The Wolves led 34-30 before Okoboji would score the last four points of the quarter to pull even at 34. The Pioneers would finally take the lead in the fourth quarter on a basket by Harper Rabel and would never trail again. The lead grew to 42-34 midway through the final frame and Okoboji would hang on for the win from there. Okoboji was led by Courtney Bockman who hit four three-pointers on her way to 15 points, Ava Packebush added 12 points to go with 8 assists and Harper Rabel had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Peyton Reverts, Danika deBoom and Gracie Gunderson all scored 8 points for H-LP. Okoboji will quickly head back into non-conference action on Saturday, hosting Class 3A #5 Estherville-Lincoln Central at 3:30.
Quotes from John Adams
Give Coach Rahe and H-LP a lot of credit, they came out really ready to play and were the aggressor that entire first half. We struggled with their 1-2-2 press some and just couldn’t get a rhythm going against their zone. Fortunately, Courtney kept us in the game that first half with 10 points. We challenged the girls at halftime to come out with a sense of urgency and they really responded, especially on the defensive end. Ava and Harper were great in that second half, and along with Courtney those three combined to go 9-10 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter after we were 3-15 to start the game. I loved how positive this group has stayed with each other, even when we are struggling, and if we don’t have that tonight we would have lost that game.
