WELLSVILLE — The Iola Mustangs hope to build a bit of momentum before the postseason during Tuesday’s senior night after taking a 64-28 shellacking by Wellsville Monday night.
A week away from the hardwood due to winter weather did no favors for the Mustangs, who faced the Pioneer League’s second-best team Wellsville (15-5, 8-4) for the Eagles’ senior night.
“We played terrible defensively,” Coach Luke Bycroft said. “We didn’t execute our game plan at all. I don’t know if it was a lack of focus or intimidation. They hit eight threes in the first quarter. That doesn’t usually happen.”
Instead of building momentum by working in the paint, Wellsville adopted a different tactic Monday, implementing a full-court, man-to-man press, limiting the Mustangs to just 17 points in the first half. The Eagles rained 3-pointers from the first whistle to quickly put the Mustangs out of contention and snap their two-game win streak.
“They shot really well, and we let them take us out of doing anything the right way,” Bycroft said. “We got in a hurry on both ends of the floor. We over-played defensively, and we played too fast instead of finding better shots. When another team is hitting shots, you don’t try to match them shot for shot. You try to find a great shot. You try to slow down their momentum.”
Senior guard Cortland Carson had a team-leading 10 points, followed by senior forward Lucas Maier and senior guard Matt Beckmon, with 5 apiece.
With the loss, Iola falls to 7-12 and finishes sixth in the Pioneer League standings with a 3-8 record. Iola’s twice postponed game against Osawatomie will not be made up because of scheduling conflicts.
Without the Osawatomie matchup, the Mustangs needed another team if it wanted to host a senior night. Lucky enough, the Erie Red Devils, 9-10, are available.
“We can only play 20 games and we needed an opponent that didn’t have 20 games,” Bycroft said. “They were willing to play us and come up for senior night.”
With seven seniors on the roster, Bycroft said the Mustangs are thankful to Erie for allowing them for one last opportunity on their home court.
“This will be their last one,” Bycroft said. “No matter what we do in the sub-state, it doesn’t really look like there’s a strong chance we will be back home. Hopefully we take care of what we need to do. It’s exciting. It’s one last chance to play in front of their home crowd.”
As for the sub-state tournament, the Mustangs head on the road to open the postseason at 7 p.m. Friday as they take on the 12-6 Riverton High School Rams.
“It’s a different style from what we’ll see [Tuesday] night and what we’ll see Friday,” Bycroft said. “We’re going to get a little bit of momentum back. I have a good feeling, but in order to do that we’re going to have to play with some defensive intensity. [Against Wellsville], it just was not there.”
Wellsville (26-11-19-8—64)
FG/3pt FT F TP
Gillins 1/5 2 2 21
Newhouse 2/2 0 0 10
Dorsey 1/1 1 2 6
Jones 2 0 0 6
Robertson 0 1 2 1
Douglas 2 1 2 5
Lyte 1 0 0 3
Holmes 1/3 0 4 11
Totals 8/13 5 12 64
Iola (26-11-19-8—28)
Crooks 1 0 1 3
Bauer 0 0 2 0
Beckmon 1/1 0 0 5
Kelley 1 0 0 2
Carson 4 1 3 10
Wilson 0 3 2 3
Kaufman 0 0 1 0
Maier 2 0 2 5
Johnson 1 1 0 3
Nemecek 0 0 1 0Totals 8/2 5 12 28
