Iola High’s defensive struggles reared their head again Friday.
For the second game in a row, the Mustangs saw an opponent clip the 80-point mark.
This time, it was visiting Wellsville, the defending Class 3A state champion.
The Eagles took an early lead and never looked back, in an 80-51 romp.
“You’ve got to have pride on the defensive end,” Mustang head coach Luke Bycroft lamented afterward. “When we’ve gotten beaten in the past, it was never this easy.”
The Eagles took control by repeatedly attacking the lane, then either putting in easy buckets, or kicking outside for open looks around the perimeter.
“They shot well, but when the ball’s in the lane coming back at you, it’s easy to shoot well,” Bycroft noted.
Iola stayed in the thick of things through the first quarter, but a 26-14 Wellsville run put the game out of reach by halftime.
The Eagles progressed in the third quarter with another 23-12 run.
Bycroft said Iola will likely adjust its defensive strategies, such as relying on zone defenses instead of his preferred man-to-man approach.
“That’s what it’s come to,” he said. “I don’t mind going to zone every now and then, but it’s time to explore it more as a first option, which hurts me to say.”
Cortland Carson led Iola with 15 points, followed by Matthew Beckmon with 11, Grady Dougherty with eight and Lucas Maier with seven.
Dougherty and Tre Wilson pulled down four rebounds each. Wilson also had two steals.
Kenyon Gillins did most of the damage for Wellsville, drilling four 3-pointers en route to a game-high 28 points.
Micah Holmes and Matt Newhouse combined to hit five treys while scoring 18 and 17 points, respectively.
