Osbourn Park defended their Cedar District champion crown Friday night at home in a 52-42 win over Gainesville.
(photo via Koshala Myers Cole)
The Osbourn Park Yellow Jackets (20-4, 14-1) followed up Wednesday's dominant win over Freedom (South Riding) with an impressive 52-42 victory against the Gainesville Cardinals (21-3, 10-3). Despite the double digit win, the Cardinals made the hosts earn it in every sense of the word. It was OP's third win against Gainesville this season.
Gainesville broke the ice with a three-pointer from star guard Madison McKenzie. OP would answer with senior Kori Cole's 1-2 from the free throw line and senior Alana Powell's steal and score to knot things at 3 early.
The game would remain tight at 5-5 when Osbourn Park's swarming defensive pressure caused Cedar District Coach of the Year Daniel Nemerow to call a timeout with 4:58 left in the first quarter. The passionate home crowd would be lively all game as an unofficial sixth man on the floor at all times.
Coming out of the timeout, the Cardinals turned it over and Kori Cole converted it into two points. A few offensive fouls and a turnover later, Gainesville ended the first quarter down 11-6.
Freshman phenom Samia Snead kicked things off for OP in the second quarter with a three-pointer to put her team up 14-6. She'd finish the game with 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals.
The Cardinals would answer a few minutes later with a three from senior guard Kennedy McCalla to narrow the lead to 16-11. A barrage of Yellow Jacket baskets from Cole, Powell, junior Angie Yann and freshman Keyarah Rainey over the final 4:20 of the first half would put their team up 28-11.
Gainesville would use an 8-0 run of their own in the third quarter to get within 11 points at 30-19. Osbourn Park answered with a quick 4-0 run when Alana Powell found AB for two and Keyarah Rainey snagged an offensive rebound and putback. Freshman guard Jayel West got in on the action with a three-pointer which was immediately countered by the Cardinals with a hoop and harm from Madison McKenzie. The visitors used a 17-12 quarter to gain ground on OP.
Senior forward Kori Cole (middle) recorded a double-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists.
(photo via Helen Jones)
McKenzie was far from done, knocking down a pair of free throws to start the fourth and driving for a basket. Despite outscoring Osbourn Park 14-12 in the final quarter, the closest the Cardinals would get would be within nine points.
As the final buzzer sounded, Osbourn Park embraced each other and were presented with the Cedar District Championship trophy as fans cheered on. I was able to catch up with Kori Cole after the game to discuss her intense effort and effect on the game.
"I just really wanted to win. It just comes out as emotion for me. There were some calls that didn't go our way, and that was frustrating. Gainesville is the one team you have to go all out for. You have to grind from the beginning to finish."
Alana Powell was coming off a 22 point performance versus Freedom (South Riding). Despite only scoring 4 points against Gainesville, she found ways to stay involved with 5 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal.
"We preach 'playing for each other'. If I'm off, someone else picks up the slack. Balanced scoring like we had tonight is when we seem to have our best games. It shows a lot how everyone on this team cares about our success."
Samia Snead (far left) is one of Osbourn Park's impact freshmen. She finished with 9 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 assist Friday night.
(photo via Helen Jones)
I also asked Powell about what it's like facing such a tough team three times in one season.
"As you play the teams over and over, it gets a little bit harder. I have a lot of respect for their coach (Daniel Nemerow) who won Coach of the Year. They're a great team. Having competition like that is really fun and games like this are highly anticipated since it's the top two seeds in the district."
Despite the accolade of repeating as District champs, head coach Chrissy Kelly reiterated there's plenty to improve on before regionals.
"We have to be better. An alarming statistic which has been a huge issue for us is going 14-31 in layups. We missed wide open layups. If the other team is making those on the other end, it's a huge concern from a momentum-shifting perspective. You work so hard to get opportunities and when you don't execute them- you leave doors open. With Gainesville, you can't leave them open."
I asked coach about the team's balanced scoring effort.
"We've been working on understanding your responsibility. It's not going to be one person. It's going to be a collective effort. Our freshmen Samia Snead, Jayel West and Keyarah Rainey bring so much. If we can continue to get that contribution on top of making our layups, I think we're a pretty good team."
We pivoted to what needs to happen between now and Tuesday's home regional playoff game versus Woodbridge (10-13, 9-3) who come in having won five of their last six games.
"Get better. When we didn't do our job on defense after missed layups, we got stuck in our emotions from the missed layup. We can enjoy the moment now- but the stage only gets bigger."
Alana Powell and Kori Cole look to set the tone in practices leading up to Tuesday.
"We're going to work hard on Saturday, go over offense and defense and do what it takes to win," said Cole.
"We're going to try to clean up the little things. Being able to get this win with the performance we had, it's only up from here and pick up where we left off," Powell reiterated.
Game Notes
- Freshman Keyarah Rainey joined Kori Cole as the team's other double-digit scorer with 10 points, 3 rebounds (all offensive) and 3 steals.
- Sophomore center Alex Brown finished with 9 points and 4 rebounds (three offensive).
- OP left points at the charity stripe, shooting 9-17.
- This was the second game in a row OP closed the half on a 17-0 run.
- This is the third game in a row the Yellow Jackets beat a team named after a bird. (Eagles, Eagles, Cardinals).
- Osbourn Park finished the game shooting 19-46 (41%) and 5-13 (38%) from beyond the arc.
- Gainesville had a slight edge in the turnover department with 10 to OP's 12.
- The Yellow Jackets grabbed 28 rebounds (10 offensive), had 11 assists and 13 steals.
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