Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday last week, Owensville Middle School (OMS) Dutchmen basketball teams coached by Jarret Payne and Shane Hunt opened their season with road action on Monday, Nov. 24 at Steelville against the host Cardinals and inside the Owensville Elementary School (OES) gymnasium on Tuesday, Nov. 2 hosting New Haven’s Shamrocks.

Payne’s 7th grade Dutchmen trailed 11-9 at halftime before eventually coming out on the short end of a 26-21 final score.

Grayson Kelley led the orange and black with seven points all in the second half.

He was followed closely by Atticus Budnik with six points and four points from Nathan Dobbs all in the first half.

Steelville was led by Sawyer Evans with seven points.

Rounding out the OMS Dutchmen scoring in seventh-grade action with two points apiece were Barrett Knight and Logan Meyer.

At home against New Haven, Owensville raced out to a 27-2 halftime lead before going on to post a 57-8 victory over the visiting Shamrocks behind a game-high eight points from Dobbs.

Bentley Crews added seven points for the orange and black followed by six points each from the duo of Matthew Allen and Knight.

Next in the OMS scoring column with five points apiece were Liam Kramme and Mason Steinbeck.

Scoring four points apiece was the Dutchmen quartet of Archer Medlock, Cody Richardson, Budnik and Kelley.

Rounding out a night where all 12 seventh-grade Dutchmen found the scoring column was Brock Schneider and Meyer with two points apiece.

Isiah Morrell led New Haven with four points.

Hunt’s 8th grade Dutchmen played their way to a pair of notches in the win column with victories over Steelville and New Haven by scores of 48-31 and 52-20 respectively.

Leading 15-5 after one quarter and 31-12 at halftime, Owensville led by as much as 21 after three quarters before going on to post a win in their season opener at Steelville.

Ricky Ringeisen led a pair of Dutchmen in double figures scoring nine of his 13 points in the second half while Trace Lange netted nine of his 10 points in the first half.

Will Brune nearly made it three eighth-grade Dutchmen in double digits scoring all nine of his points in the first quarter.

Brayden Oldfather added six points netting four of those in the first half.

Josiah Gehlert scored all five of his points in the third quarter while Ivan Phillips hit a second-quarter 3-pointer to account for his scoring against the Cardinals.

Roman Crowe chipped in a second-quarter bucket for two points while Eli Davidson hit a third-quarter free throw for one point to round out the scoring for Hunt’s Dutchmen at Steelville.

Andrew Jensen led Steelville with 14 points.

In front of their home fans the next night at OES against New Haven, Owensville’s eighth-grade Dutchmen took a 17-4 lead after one quarter and led by double digits the rest of the way helping them to a 2-0 start.

Ringeisen led Hunt’s Dutchmen scoring 11 of his game-high 17 points in the first half.

He was followed in double figures by Brune who scored eight of his 12 points in the third quarter.

Oldfather nearly made it a trio of double-digit scorers in orange and black finishing with nine points.

Phillips scored all seven of his points in the first half while Crowe added all three of his points in the fourth quarter.

Jace Duerr and Gehlert capped the eighth-grade Dutchmen scoring with two points apiece.

OMS Dutchmen basketball will return to action later this week on Thursday, Dec. 4 in a Highway 19 showdown at Cuba against the host Wildcats with a 5:30 p.m., tip time in Crawford County.