BURLINGTON — The Iola Fillies’ made that all too familiar journey to Burlington on Friday night and as has been their recent history with the Wildcats, they hung in the game the whole way, but the firepower of the state’s No. 8 ranked team was too much to overcome, falling 45-35.
Iola’s seniors kept the team in the game in the first half.
Toni Macha had three straight points at one point in the second quarter to cut a 20-9 lead down to eight, then late in the half, Sydney Wade rattled off four straight points to cut a the margin back down to nine after a Burlington run.
The lead was 10 at halftime after sophomore Madisyn Holloway laid one in to close the first-half scoring.
Burlington hit a three to open the third quarter and it appear as though the Fillies may have trouble sticking with the home squad, but again coach Becky Carlson’s squad had an answer.
“Team effort wise, this is is about as good out a team effort as we have had,” Carlson said. “We just have to score more in the first half.”
Eight-straight points – with four different Iola players scoring – got it down the 31-26 midway through the third quarter.
“Our thing was that we really frustrated them on offense and then we did a great job of getting to the rim,” Carlson said. “We just can’t start out 10 points behind a team like that.”
Now it was the Fillies that seized momentum as they figured out a strategy against Burlington’s press by using Wade as a secondary playmaker in the mid-court area and allowing Colbi Riley, Macha and Holloway to handle the ball and find a way to get it to Wade in more of a position to make plays.
That is how Macha got the lead down to five off of a Wade assist.
Wade closed the quarter with a basket to answer a Burlington score and the Fillies trailed 33-28 going into the final quarter.
A Macha free throw got the lead down to four points early in the fourth and the lead hovered around four to six points for the majority of the quarter until another Macha cut the lead to three points with 2:25 left in the game.
That is as close as the Fillies would get though as the Wildcats began to try and hold the ball to run the clock and force Iola to foul.
They ran over a minute off the clock before the Fillies’ finally fouled.
The Wildcats then hit six-straight from the charity stripe to seal the victory.
The Fillies were led by Macha with 13 points and Wade with 10.
“Toni is finding her shot,” Carlson said. “She is playing like I know she can play.”
Burlington was led by sophomore Kirsten Young with 19 points.
JUNIOR VARSITY
The Fillies’ junior varsity squad lost to Burlington 46-25.
Junior guard Carley Cescon was the team’s leading scorer with six points while freshman Kelsey Morrison finished with five, including the team’s only three-point basket.
Macayla Bycroft and Shaylee Sutterby each added four points and Madisyn Holloway, Kassy Shelby and Sujinna Phutatham rounded out the scoring with two each.
UP NEXT
The Fillies will return home on Tuesday when they host the Prairie View Buffalos.
