Odessa wins over much-improved Davenport

ODESSA — The season is slowly coming to a close for the Odessa Tigers.

Despite a 53-46 win over a much improved Davenport Gorillas, the Tigers remained three games back of Wilbur-Creston and Almira-Coulee-Hartline for the final playoff spot in the Bi-County league.

After beating the Gorillas 61-33 earlier in the season, Odessa struggled to match that same defensive output, falling behind four times in the game before pulling off the win.

"Davenport has really improved, at the beginning they hustled more and got more balls," Odessa head coach Larry Moffet said. "It was more of them than us that played really well."

After Davenport grabbed a 4-3 lead early in the first quarter, Drake Costlow hit a 3-pointer from the corner and capitalized on a Travis Iksic steal with a fastbreak layup for a 9-3 lead.

Luke Rodenbough kept the Gorillas close with a 3 of his own, but Iksic controlled the final four minutes of the game, leading the Tigers to a 15-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Costlow hit another 3 at the beginning of the second quarter to give Odessa a 20-9 lead. Costlow finished with a game high 23 points in the game.

Rodenbough brought Davenport back into the game, erasing the Tigers' 11-point lead with two 3-pointers that cut the lead to 23-20, Marty Villa added a bucket and Kyle Nelson grabbed the lead for the Gorillas with a spin move around Iksic, making the basket and drawing the foul. After the free throw, Davenport led 27-25 at halftime.

"I think we became really impatient and taking quick shots," Moffet said. "The game goes inside out and we started working outside in."

Costlow opened the third with a 3-pointer for an Odessa lead, then both sides went back and forth before Costlow closed the third with a 3-pointer for a 38-35 lead over Davenport.

"The last eight games he has been averaging 20 points a game for us," Moffet said. "In the first half he was a little impatient, but in the second half he did a better job of setting himself."

Costlow hit back-to-back 3s in the fourth, extending the lead to 44-35 with 6:19 left in the game. David Johnson rescued Odessa from an 8-0 run late in the game with two consecutive baskets and the Tigers went 3-for-6 from the free-throw line in the last minute-and-a-half to secure the 53-46 win.

"We are young and we are impatient at times and sometimes we have to live with that," Moffet added.

Odessa (5-10, 5-12) face Valley-Christian (8-7, 9-8) on Friday.