BURLINGTON — Iola High School’s girls and boys basketball teams struggled to find their footing on Tuesday against Burlington High School. The girls lost 56-27. The boys fell 54-32.
The girls’ team was plagued by bad shot selection in the first quarter, while Burlington raced to a 6-0 start over the first few minutes. The Wildcats dominated the boards and turned rebounds into points to help pull away early. Iola got on the board when Aysha Houk hit a jumper about 8:00 into the game.
Burlington’s fast break offense dominated the first half, turning turnovers into points. The Wildcat defense shut down the Mustangs for much of the first half, until Iola came alive down the stretch, trying to bring the score closer at the half. Burlington ended the first half with a 14-point lead, 26-12.
The second half started much better for the Mustangs with a 6-0 run, fueled by two baskets from Houk. Late in the third quarter, turnovers plagued the Mustangs, and Burlington took advantage, converting them into points to open up a 20-point lead.
Elanie Sturgeon opened the fourth quarter with a bang, capitalizing on a turnover for the Mustangs, but it proved to be too little too late as Burlington ran the clock down to close out the win. Iola fouled Burlington multiple times, and Burlington took advantage of getting to the free-throw line, converting eight of its 14 shots from the line.
“We went out with our game plan and we executed half of it,” said IHS head coach Kelsey Johnson. “We had a hard time scoring and let one player on the other team take over.”
Both teams struggled to wake up in the first quarter of the boys game until Burlington’s Braden Sloyer scored on a short jump shot with 6:00 left in the first. That sparked a 6-2 Burlington run. The Wildcats negated one of the Mustangs’ biggest weapons, Tyler Boeken. Burlington’s defense came prepared and didn’t let Boeken drive into the paint, where Boeken’s size is often used to drive the lane and get easy jumpers.
Boeken finally broke through halfway through the second quarter and found a hole in the defense for his first points of the night. Burlington set themselves up for good looks at the hoop, and the Wildcats shooters took advantage. The Mustangs got a few good looks, but couldn’t convert those shots to points.
Iola was plagued by turnovers, which Burlington turned into points. The Wildcats led 36-13 at the half.
Iola’s shooters looked to be in rhythm at the start of the second half, scoring early on a Landon Weide jumper, but that rhythm was broken when the Wildcats went on a 5-2 run to end the third, taking a 20-point lead into the fourth.
Iola had its best quarter of the night in the fourth. Boeken came alive, scoring six points. The Mustangs took advantage of trips to the free-throw line, converting five of their nine trips into points, with Eli Adams going 2-2 from the line down the stretch. Despite the Mustangs’ best efforts, the Burlington defense proved to be too much.
Iola is now 1-4 on the season and will play their last games before the break at Prairie View on Thursday.
“It was a tough game because of the way Burlington plays defense,” said Mustang head coach Luke Bycroft. “They didn’t press up the whole game but they did challenge every pass and every dribble. In the second half we responded fairly well. In the second quarter we just laid down and gave up 23 points. We weren’t willing to stop the ball from getting to the paint and getting to the rim.”
The Mustang junior varsity team lost 50-42. Travis Wanker scored 11 points, Mac Leonard scored seven. Cody Wille scored six. Lucas Maier scored three. Japheth Rutoh and Cortland Carson both scored four. Casey Rowe, Eli Adams, Ashton Hesse, and Gage Skahan each scored two. Ben Kerr scored one.
The Mustang freshman team lost 43-25. Kaiden Rutherford scored eight points. Maier scored six. Cole Moyer scored three. Kyser Nemecek and Jeremy Adair score two each. Ethan Harris scored one.
