O-M girls win out in Bluegrass Conference Tourney

Orient-Macksburg played all the way back on the consolation side of the Bluegrass Conference girls basketball bracket last week, finishing with a 64-37 win over Moulton-Udell Thursday, Jan. 26 at Mormon Trail High School.

The Bulldogs then continued, losing in a regular season game Monday, Jan. 30 at home against Diagonal, 45-29.

Against Diagonal, there were good points and bad points to takeaway, head coach Dave Hartman said.

“Last night I was very disappointed in how we executed on the offensive side of the floor, but I was happy with how we defended Diagonal,” Hartman said Tuesday morning on the phone. “To hold them to 45 points, we’re making strides defensively, we just were not productive on the offensive end. They’re a pretty good rebounding team, but our inability to move the ball doomed us from the start. That’s part of the learning process.”

Junior guard Kinsey Eslinger was 3-for-7 from the 3-point arc, scoring 14 points to pace Orient-Macksburg against Diagonal. Freshman forward Emma Boswell continued to up her rebounds total by grabbing 15 in the game.

In the win against Moulton-Udell, Boswell went to town with 27 points and 19 rebounds. Senior guard Christa Cass scored 21 points and continues to progress as a scorer following an earlier injury. Eslinger also added 11 points to go with 10 assists. Senior forward Logann Carson grabbed 10 rebounds in that game.

“I know Moulton-Udell hasn’t won yet, but we still did a lot of the things well that we wanted to do. We executed, moved the ball, shared the ball, and Emma was fairly dominant in that game. They couldn’t match up well with her and couldn’t guard her, and Emma really took it to them.”

Now 5-13 overall and 2-7 in the Bluegrass Conference, Orient-Macksburg was due to travel to Mormon Trail Tuesday night, Ankeny Christian Thursday night and host Seymour Friday for its final home game. The Bulldogs close the regular season Monday at East Union.