Oskaloosa interim coach Bryan White expected his team to be a little rusty coming from the holiday break.

After all, the Indians hadn’t played since Dec. 19 and had the night off on Tuesday.

The Indians forced Knoxville into 26 turnovers and held the Panthers to four first-quart points en route to the 61-45 win Friday night in a Little Hawkeye Conference contest.

“We were a little rusty coming out of the break,” White said. “It seemed like forever since we played. I think they agreed and they were anxious and maybe had some nerves. We had a lot of easy ones we couldn’t convert early in the first quarter.

“I thought, overall, our defensive effort was there tonight. That’s one thing we preached over break and the guys are buying into it. They gave a great effort on the defensive end.”

Wiebe Goodyk and Matt Bowie typlified that defense.

Goodyk was guarding the inbounds pass late in the first quarter, leaped high to intercept the ball as it left a Knoxville player’s hand and laid it in for the 10-4 lead at the quarter break. Bowie then dove for a loose ball early in the second quarter and that led to a basket by Andrew Reed for a 15-4 advantage. The Indians (4-3 overall, 3-3 LHC) weren’t threatened again by the Panthers (3-5, 1-5).

Oskaloosa maintained the double-digit lead for nearly the rest of the game as the closest Knoxville got was eight with less than 3 minutes to go in the first half.

Alex Knoot and Ethan VandeWall scored their first points of the campaign and Jordan Wood, who missed the first half of the season with mononucleosis, got his first action in the closing moments of the game.

“It’s always cool when you can get all the guys in the ball game,” White said. “It was neat to see the guys that are playing a lot cheering for those guys. We need all 15 guys on this team to play as one and that shows in practice with the intensity and making us better every night on the floor.

“He (Wood) had to sit out a lot of games and it was his first crack at playing. He’s definitely one that’s add some intensity. It was good to see him back on the floor again.”

Oskaloosa 61, Knoxville 45

Osky 10 19 21 11 — 61

Knox 4 14 12 15 — 45

OSKALOOSA (61) — Andrew Reed 4 2-3 10, Wiebe Goodyk 7 0-1 15, Mitch Tucker 2 3-3 8, Matt Bowie 5 0-0 11, Michael Youngblut 0 5-6 5, Taylor Schelker 0 0-0 0, Alex Knoot 1 0-0 2, Jordan Shrago 1 0-1 2, Jordan Wood 0 0-0 0, Malaki Wills 1 1-2 3, Payton Curtis 0 0-0 0, Ethan VandeWall 0 1-2 1, Blake Englehoven 2 0-2 4, Cole Converse 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 12-20 61.