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RANDOLPH – The Osmond-Randolph Hawks faced another busy week in the Clark Division of the Lewis and Clark Conference Basketball Tournament.
In the quarterfinal opener on Jan. 29, Osmond-Randolph faced the Winside Wildcats, who dealt the Hawks a narrow defeat the previous week. The black-and-gold were able to win the season series with a hard-fought 59-55 win, their fourth of the season.
Xander Brown led the way in the game with 16 points on the night, and also chipped in 7 rebounds.
Hunter Buchanan also had a good scoring effort with 14 and Owen Severson also ended with double figure, scoring 10. Brayden Shearer continued his dominance on the defensive end with 12 rebounds and 3 steals while dishing out 4 assists.
One key to the game was a season-low 9 turnovers that allowed the Hawks’ offense to get on track and turn back a strong effort from the Wildcats.
BOX SCORE FG FT Reb. Pts. L. Harder 0-1 1-2 3 1 Brown 6-18 2-3 7 16 Shearer 1-5 0-2 12 2 Severson 3-7 3-4 2 10 Guenther 2-7 2-2 3 7 Alderson0- 0 0-0 0 0 Buchanan 5-12 2-2 0 14 Lienemann 2-5 0-0 0 5 Engel 2-3 0-0 4 4 Hawks 21-58 10-15 31 59 In the semifinal round on Feb. 1, the Hawks traveled to Hartington to take on the Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats. The recent hot shooting from the Hawks was absent in this one as the team struggled at the nets, shooting 28 percent, and came away with a 51-39 loss.
The Hawks’ bench provided a scoring boost on the evening with three reserves leading the way in scoring, with Ryan Engel’s season-high 12 points, 8 points from Logan Lienemann and 7 from fellow sophomore Luke Harder.
Hunter Buchanan added 7 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists.
Finally, on Feb. 3 in the thirdplace game for the bracket, the Hawks again struggled in the Hartington gym to make shots in a game against Tri County Northeast.
The Hawks traded leads with the Wolfpack the whole game and had a last-second shot fall off the rim in a 45-43 loss.
Owen Severson led the way on the night with a monster game and season-high 21 points along with 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Luke Harder continued a late-season surge with 7 points and 5 rebounds, Brayden Shearer kept his strong performance on the glass going with 12 rebounds to go along with 4 points, Hunter added 4 points and Logan, Ryan, and Matthew Alderson each added 2.
The Hawks couldn’t take advantage of the free-throw line, making only 14-24 on the night. However, the team played hard to the very end, despite being down a starter in Xander Brown, who is day to day with an ankle injury.
Osmond-Randolph continued recent success, taking care of the ball with only 10 turnovers, but just couldn’t get a timely bucket to come away with a victory.
The regular season begins winding down with a Monday makeup game at home with Wausa, followed by another home tilt against Stuart next Friday.
The now 4-14 Hawks will hope some home cooking can lead to a strong end of the regular season heading into postseason play.
