The Centralia boys can’t wait around to improve.

Centralia vs Osage Photo Gallery

The Panthers had a rough opening night to this season on Tuesday at home with a 72-38 loss to School of the Osage. Centralia trailed 34-17 at halftime and fell further behind as Osage began the second half with a 9-0 run. 

Head coach Chad Thall, going into his first season in the head position, said Centralia’s first game will “flush” this game and “not cash in the season off this bad performance.” Simply put, Thall said Osage (1-0) looked more ready than the Panthers (0-1) did.

“They pressured our guards pretty well, which made it hard to get into anything,” Thall said. “The pressure made us just try to stop running what we run. We weren’t ready for what they brought, and they were really ready.”

Osage took an 18-6 lead to force Centralia’s first timeout following two offensive rebounds in one scoring possession for the Indians — part of a 33-18 rebound advantage. Blake Harrison had 16 points and eight rebounds for Osage, Dayne Depee finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, and Lane Stokes added six rebounds off the bench.

Centralia was not bigger on the glass but also not bigger whenever it moved the ball closer to the rim. Shots were always off target as Osage continued to pressure shooters.

“Their help defense was really good,” Thall said. “We haven’t simulated the speed and pressure they put on us in practice. Now we’ve seen it. Now we know what the standard is for what we need to do to get ready.”

Logan Rosenfelder knocked down Centralia’s first 3-pointer of the game early in the third quarter. Rosenfelder finished with five points to follow behind Anthony Ford’s and Hunter Hull’s team-high six points. Ford also had three steals.

Centralia finished the game with two 3-pointers while Jackson Long hit five 3-pointers and led Osage with 19 points, knocking down two of them in that 9-0 run early in the second half. Thall said the 3-pointers were just one type of shot Centralia needed to go down, not just to keep up on the scoreboard but for the sake of confidence.

“Seeing the ball go through the hoop is a huge deal,” Thall said. “Obviously, you want your 3s to go in, but as long as we’re taking good ones, we’re going to keep shooting. Seeing anything go through the hoop tonight was a struggle. It’s going to be slow going when you don’t make any layups and those are few and far between because they were really sound defensively.”

Centralia now needs to be ready for the rest of its schedule, starting with North Callaway (1-0) at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 after Thanksgiving break. Thall said opponents aren’t going to wait for Centralia to be ready as shown by Osage on opening night and his players need to realize that. 

“I’m hoping we rebound the ball really well, and that leads into playing in transition,” Thall said. “Scoring before the defense is ready is a lot easier than just somebody waiting on you. We’re going to keep pounding and keep trying to do the stuff we’re going to do. Obviously, watching tonight’s tape is going to be a struggle, but I’ll be able to show the guys, ‘Here’s the reason we didn’t have a lot of success tonight.’”