Friday night was a big night for Osage“>Fort Osage senior Austin Regier.
There was a dramatic first-quarter fall that temporarily sidelined him in Friday’s game against William Chrisman.
He was crowned Court Warming King at halftime.
And all he did for a finale was score a team-high 18 points in the Indians’ 63-43 romp over Chrisman.
Not too shabby.
“It’s a great thing and I’m so happy I won (at halftime), but at the same time we really wanted this game,” Regier said. “There were so many implications, and we had so many people come out and support us and it was big for us to come out and get this win.”
Big was the operative word. Fort Osage’s front line of Regier, Zach Adams and D’Vante Mosby stands 6-feet-6, 6-7 and 6-5, respectively.
The Indians, 15-4, were able to solve Chrisman’s press for most of the game, and that led to plenty of easy buckets.
“They throw all sorts of different pressure at you, and once we were able to settle down and slow down and get it to our big guys, we’re tough,” Fort Osage coach Josh Wilson said. “We’re very tough. When we slowed down and ran our stuff, they couldn’t match up against us.”
Adams finished with 15 points. Mosby’s impact on the score sheet — four points — hardly measured his impact on the game.
“It’s hard to guard (Adams) because they focus so much on D’Vante, trying to take him away that Zach can go one-on-one, and I’ll put Zach one-on-one against almost anybody in the city,” Wilson said. “It’s a pretty deadly combination.”
Chrisman, 9-9, got 23 points from sophomore Chris Horn, but little else offensively.
“We had won seven in a row and things were going really well, and Fort put a stop to that,” Chrisman coach John Vickers said with a wry smile. “We were never able to be effective offensively. They’re really talented, they push the rpm’s, they board hard and they’re physical. Anytime a game is really physical, it hurts us. We backed down and didn’t respond very well. We never had any structure offensively and we settled for quick shots because I think we just got frustrated.”
Chrisman had a chance to get back into the game in the second quarter, when it held Fort Osage to five points. But the Bears managed only two points on a bank shot with about a minute left.
Fort Osage is harvesting the fruits of a senior class that struggled through a pair of single-digit win seasons when it arrived.
If Regier has his way, the momentum will carry on after he and his classmates are gone.
“I remember a conversation with D’Vante freshman year about how we wanted to create a program, not just get to being seniors and have one good year,” Regier said. “We just want to keep building on it and the rest of the guys below us will see what it takes to win.”
