Red Oak loses to fifth ranked Rams

RED OAK — The Red Oak girls’ basketball team lost Friday night to the fifth ranked in Class 3A Glenwood Rams, 75-56, on senior night Friday.

“I was very pleased with how hard the girls worked and the effort that they put in tonight,” Interim Coach Stacey Rolenc said. “It was a big change from the last time that we played.”

Rolenc said she thought the girls went into the game with the attitude of having nothing to lose against the Rams.

“The first time we played them (74-27 loss), there was a lot of fear. We had our freshmen going against Morgan Lucy, who is very intimidating to a freshman like Grace Blomstedt,” Rolenc said. “This time, Grace went in and fought hard. I think she’s learned what they can do since we played them the first time and she’s not letting those big girls intimidate her like she use to.”

Red Oak jumped out to a 9-4 lead thanks to points by senior Gabi French. Glenwood rallied and outscored the Tigers 11-2 for the rest of the quarter, to take a 15-11 lead.

The Rams continued to storm ahead and led 39-20 at halftime. The Tigers played catch-up for the entire second half, but picked up points from both freshmen starters Kate Walker and Grace Blomstedt.

The tandem each scored a season high of 20 points to lead Red Oak.

“Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked a lot to the freshmen about stepping up and becoming leaders and realizing that the team believes in them,” Rolenc said. “We just want them to believe in themselves and we’re starting to see that.”

French also had double-digit points for Red Oak as she recorded 11.

Last Tuesday, Red Oak lost to the Clarinda Cardinals, 36-25, at Clarinda High School. Points came at a premium for both teams as neither team scored more than 11 points in any quarter. Clarinda had double-digit points in the second and fourth quarters.

Red Oak shot 8-for-29 from the field in the loss to the Cardinals.
French and Blomstedt were both the leading scorers with seven points each. French was also Red Oak's leading rebounder as she grabbed 12 boards and also had five steals.

Walker was the next highest scorer as she recorded six points in the game.

Red Oak will play Stanton Tuesday night, then on Thursday, Red Oak travels to Neola to play Tri-Center as part of a varsity doubleheader.