Game Recap
Okoboji lost a hard-fought road game at MOC-FV on Tuesday night 64-60. Both teams struggled on offense in the first quarter before the Dutch would take advantage of some Okoboji turnovers to break to a 16-11 lead after the first frame. The Pioneers scored a quick bucket to start the second quarter but MOC-FV would answer with a 7-0 run to push their lead to 23-13. Okoboji trimmed the lead to 27-21 on a basket from Ava Packebush but the Dutch would respond and push the lead to 31-22 at the half. The Dutch started the third quarter on a 6-0 run to take their largest lead of the night at 37-22 before the Pioneers would respond and trim the lead to 10 at the end of the third frame, 49-39. Okoboji would quickly trim the lead to six at 51-45 but MOC-FV answered with a 5-0 run to push the lead to 56-45. Things would get very tight after that as Okoboji turned up the defensive pressure and twice trimmed the Dutch lead to three with the ball within the last 2:00 but they couldn’t get several three-point attempts to fall, and MOC-FV hit one late free throw to make the final score 64-60. Okoboji was led by Ava Packebush, who totaled 16 points to go with 7 rebounds and 3 assists; Carly Carstens added 14 points. Freshman Adyson Jeltema led MOC-FV with 21 points while Amanda Hulstein added 16 points. Okoboji will be off for a week during the Thanksgiving break and host Class 2-A State runner-up Central Lyon on November 29th.
Quotes from John Adams
“Give MOC-FV credit, they really took the fight to us in the first half and the start of the second half. I was very happy with how the girls responded when we got down 15 points as we finally played with a sense of urgency and energy. I definitely need to do a better job of having us ready to play at the start of the game. Our defense created offense in the last quarter and a half, and that’s the way we’re going to have to play this season to be successful. Our bench gave us some great minutes and brought outstanding energy to the game. Ava picked up where she left off last season with a great floor game, she just does so many things well for us. Carly hit some huge shots for us in the second half to get us back in the game, we just couldn’t get that one shot to fall at the end, but had some great looks from kids that we have 100% confidence in. We’ll learn from this one and get back after it tomorrow morning with a practice before we break for the holiday.”
