Eagles Fall To No. 4 Rated Norfolk Catholic

On Tuesday, Jan. 24, the O'Neill Eagles hosted Norfolk Catholic in a battle of Mid-States Conference foes with a packed house excited to see two teams, each with six game winning streaks under their belt, go at it.  In the end, the Knights of Norfolk Catholic proved to be too much as they defeated the Eagles 66-45.  The game was much closer all night than the score would indicate, but Norfolk Catholic never relinquished the lead with the closest stretch being a run by the Eagles in the third quarter that cut the lead to four.  The Knights opened the fourth quarter with a couple of three's and relied on an entire team effort to seal the deal as four Knight players finished in double digits and nine made the scoring column.  "I felt our biggest downfall was our rebounding on both ends of the floor.  Catholic is a big, physical team, and we simply didn't check them off well enough to keep them from getting numerous attempts at the hoop," commented Coach Kallhoff.  Leading the Eagles was Brock Schueth with 10 points, Jordyn Johnson with nine, and Derrick Hostert with eight.  

Eagles defeat cross county rival West Holt

Last Thursday, Jan. 26, O'Neill traveled the short distance west to take on the Huskies of West Holt.  This rivalry may have taken a back seat after West Holt dropped to C-2, but it is always a hard fought game with both teams playing at a high level.  On the night the Eagles came out on top by a score of 61-40.  The Eagles came out early to lead by pushing the ball up the floor and scoring some quick buckets in transition to take a nine point lead after the first stanza and that is where the lead stayed for much of the game.  Not until the fourth quarter did the Eagles expand their lead to ultimately win by 21.  "Our game plan going into each contest is to push the ball up the floor and look for quick lay-ups, and tonight we executed that piece nicely.  Once we got set up in our offense we rushed some shots, but West Holt plays good defense that can force teams to make poor decisions, so we tried to get our points elsewhere," said Coach Kallhoff.  Leading the Eagles was Derrick Hostert who ran the floor and finished numerous buckets out of transition to finish with a game high 18 points.  Brock Schueth had a stellar night with the tough task of guarding West Holts best offensive threat while still finishing some good running floaters in the lane to drop 12 points, and Tyler Knopp stepped in and hit some timely shots, including a pair of three's, to end with 11.  David Akainda also sparked some offensive power coming off the bench to record seven points.  "I just felt that our boys all played really well together tonight.  We had different guys stepping into roles that they are not predominately use to, but that's what we need in order to succeed night in and night out," added Coach Kallhoff.  Jordyn Johnson stepped up to control the glass with 10 rebounds and Donnie Taylor played solid defense as he took his 10th  charge of the season in convincing fashion.  This week the Eagles are entrenched in the Mid-States Conference Tournament and ask for your support as each game will be, as always, important.