Yes, Iola High lost its second straight game Tuesday as visiting Burlington rallied for a hard-fought 68-61 victory
The Wildcats overcame Iola’s hot start, working its way back from an early 11-point deficit, to take the lead for the first time midway through the third quarter.
Then, after Iola responded in kind, the Wildcats converted on several critical plays down the stretch to drop Iola to 2-3 on the season.
But even in defeat, the Mustangs showed more than a few glimpses that the still-nascent basketball season shows more promise than perhaps even his own players realize, IHS head coach Luke Bycroft said.
“We showed up to compete tonight,” Bycroft said. “Even though it’s terrible to lose, this game showed me we can do something special if we can put the pieces together. If we play with that kind of effort, we can beat some teams.”
The Wildcats took the lead for good with an 8-0 run in the opening minute of the fourth quarter after Iola’s Austin Crooks had scored on a driving layup for a 51-50 Mustang advantage.
Kasten Payer scored to put Burlington back ahead before Maddox Cheever followed with a 3-pointer to make it a four-point lead.
The Mustangs came up empty on their possession, and Burlington’s Sage Fejfar converted a traditional 3-point play to make it 58-51 with 6:19 left in the contest.
Iola’s Cortland Carson stemmed the tide, albeit briefly, with back-to-back jumpers, pulling Iola back to within 58-55 at the 4:45 mark.
The margin yo-yoed between three and five points over the next three minutes until Fejfar effectively slammed the door when he corraled a missed free throw from teammate Chance Hegg to make it 65-59 with 1:20 left.
A pair of contested layup attempts from Iola failed to land in the waning moments as Burlington ended the game on a 7-2 run.
BYCROFT pointed to a critical sequence early in the third quarter, when Burlington took advantage of a Mustang defensive lull.
“We had a little stretch where, the biggest thing to me, was we weren’t very tough,” he said.
Iola was a step slow, he contended, and wound up “chasing shooters” as Burlington whipped the ball around the perimeter.
In doing so, it opened passing lanes to the interior, fueling a 10-1 Burlington run to start the second half.
