Osbourn Girls Fall to Heritage on Senior Night

The Osbourn girls basketball team hosted Heritage High School on Thursday night in a Cedar Run District battle that was also the final regular season game for the Eagles.

It was also Senior Night and Osbourn honored its senior players after the game. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they would end up dropping the contest to Heritage by a final score of 54-36.

It was a slow start for the Osbourn team that would end up coming back to bite them in the end. The Lady Eagles have had trouble all season long getting off to a good start in games. They seem to start slow and then play good basketball in the second half and many times this year, it has been too late by the time they get it going.

Thursday night’s game was very similar as Osbourn fell way behind early and then outscored their opponent in the second half, still suffering a loss as the first half deficit was too big.

The Eagles simply could not get anything going on offense in the first quarter and Heritage moved the ball around well, creating some easy baskets. Heritage jumped out to an early lead and by the end of a tough first quarter Osbourn trailed 17-6.

The Eagle offense continued to struggle in the second quarter as they were only able to put four points on the board in the period. Heritage continued to shoot the ball pretty well as they added 16 second quarter points.

At the end of the first half, Osbourn had fallen behind by 23 points. 

In the second half, the Eagles did what they have done most of the season and  came out much stronger. The offense was not dominant by any means, but was much better than they were in the first half. The defense also stepped up and played better after the break.

As a result, in the third quarter, Osbourn outscored Heritage 13-10 to make the score 43-23 heading into the fourth.

The Eagles came out in the fourth quarter and again outscored Heritage in the period. Osbourn Head Coach Emily Kellogg cleared the bench and made sure the 

The Eagles outscored Heritage 13-11 in the final stanza but Osbourn still came up well short as they lost 54-36. The leading performers in the game for Osbourn were:

• Mikal Johnson with 16 points
• Jacklyn Hockman with 7 points

Osbourn will be looking to surprise some teams as they prepare for the district tournament next week. The Eagles will square off against Loudoun Valley on Monday night and the winner of that game will then take on Stonewall,  while the team that comes up short will be done for the season.

For Osbourn, it has been a season of fighting to improve every game. The team is very young and although they have struggled this year, the Eagles are a team that could be a serious contender over the next couple seasons as their youngsters continue to mature and improve.