February 06, 2025

Bulldogs split BGC tournament slate

Awaits regional trail, which stars at home

By Ryan Stonebraker
Orient-Macksburg junior Natalie Mullen fights for the ball with Diagonal freshman Jaylynn Doolittle in a recent Bluegrass Conference regular season game at Orient.

Orient-Macksburg junior Natalie Mullen fights for the ball with Diagonal freshman Jaylynn Doolittle in a recent Bluegrass Conference regular season game at Orient. (Dan Dickinson)

Orient-Macksburg’s girls basketball squad earned its ninth win of the season last week, splitting the two games played during the period.

The Bulldogs defeated Seymour Thursday, Jan. 30 by a score of 36-30 after they fell to Murray, 53-49, Monday, Jan. 27. The games were a part of the Bluegrass Conference Tournament and the win over Seymour snapped a three-game skid the Bulldogs were on.

“The Seymour game we had to fight back to win,” said O-M head coach Dave Hartman.“We were down in that game after having a big lead at half and got shutout in the third quarter. Playing from behind, we didn’t want to lose and did a good job pulling out the win.”

The Bulldogs trailed 42-27 going to the fourth quarter against Murray in a game at Ankeny Christian Academy, however a 22-point outburst in the fourth quarter made things interesting before Murray took the win, which was their 11th of the season. The Mustangs led at each quarter break and a 16-9 run in the third by Murray didn’t help Orient-Macksburg.

Orient-Macksburg shot 31% for the game and canned six 3-pointers. Mattie Thompson made good on four 3-point attempts for 13 points in all. Emma Boswell and Ella Boswell each scored 14 as co-scoring leaders for the Bulldogs. Emma Boswell had a double double, adding 14 boards. Murray’s Maliya Berry led all scorers, turning in a double double of her own with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

The Seymour game was played at Diagonal and the Bulldogs beat the Warriors for the second time in two weeks. The two teams met in Orient Jan. 17 with O-M winning 32-28.The win was the 10th of the season for the Bulldogs.

Orient-Macksburg led 11-5 after the first quarter and held a nine-point, 20-11 halftime lead. The Warriors took advantage of an ice-cold third quarter for the Bulldogs to take a 26-20 lead to the final quarter. The Bulldogs found their grove in the final quarter, using a 16-4 run to capture the game.

Emma Boswell had a monster game with 15 points and 26 rebounds. She also had three blocked shots and two steals. Ella Boswell had 12 rebounds, four steals, two blocked shots and two assists to go with eight points.

“We are going to get to see Murray again on Monday,” said Hartman. “They are a tough match up for us. We were down 12 with under four minutes left and cut it to three and had a chance to tie.”

The Bulldogs improved to 10-7 with the win and sit with a 4-5 record in the Bluegrass Conference. The Bulldogs will play three times this week with two home games. The Bulldogs were home on Monday, Feb. 3 against Diagonal and at Mormon Trail Tuesday.

The Bulldogs will host Griswold Feb. 6 in their last non-conference game. That game replaces a conference game against Twin Cedars, which canceled the remainder of its season due to low numbers in January.