BURLINGTON — Iola High’s Fillies came up on the short end of the scoreboard, but found some new offensive weapons to carry on into the second half of their 2012-13 basketball season.
The Fillies found their outside shooting touch, enough to fluster their foes from Paola High in the second half of their consolation matchup Friday in the Burlington Midseason Tournament.
Alas, Paola’s pressure defense clamped down on the Fillies’ offense in the fourth quarter, forcing several turnovers in a 52-29 win.
The defeat puts Iola in the seventh-place game of the Burlington tournament. Iola will take on Rossville at noon at the Burlington Middle School gymnasium. Rossville lost to Labette County 54-31 in its contest.
“If we could just take a little better care of the ball, we’d be a lot closer to winning,” Iola coach Becky Carlson said.
Especially if the Fillies continue to shoot as well as they did Friday.
Trailing 30-11 at halftime, Iola managed to pare the deficit to single digits in a little more than 4 minutes of action.
Hannah Endicott set the tone with a 3-pointer just seconds in the third quarter, followed in short order by a Kyra Moore trey.
The Endicott-Moore duo struck again midway through the period. Endicott’s short jumper was followed by another Moore 3-pointer, capping an 11-0 run for the Fillies.
Jo Lohman’s putback later in the period closed Iola’s defict to 33-24.
Paola’s defense set the tone from there. The Panthers scored 11 straight points, part of a larger 19-5 run to finish off the game.
Many of Paola’s points came from turnovers forced by a stifling full-court press.
Iola also struck early in the first half.
Endicott’s trey got things started before Paola embarked on a 12-0 run.
Lexie Long’s 3-pointer near the end of the first quarter cut Iola’s deficit to 12-6.
Endicott hit another 3-pointer midway through the second quarter to cut Paola’s lead to 16-9. Emery Driskel’s basket with 2:25 left accounted for Iola’s only points in a 14-2 Paola run to end the first half.
Carlson found many reasons to be encouraged.
“I liked the way we defended their big girls, and we blocked out well,” Carlson said. “Kyra played very well, as did Emery. Hannah’s shooting kept us in the game.”
Endicott hit three 3-pointers in all to lead Iola with 11 points, while Moore scored six with four rebounds. Lohman also had four rebounds and a steal.
Iola wound up hitting 6 of 11 3-pointers in the contest.
Friday’s contest marked the season debut of senior Emily Ware, who missed the first month of the season with a concussion.
“Emily’s got a long ways to go, but she’s getting better,” Carlson said.
Ware was scoreless with a rebound.
Lyndsee Johnson scored 11 to lead Paola.
In other tournament action, Burlington held off Sabetha 42-38 and Santa Fe Trail thumped Pittsburg 58-26. Burlington and Santa Fe Trail will play for the tournament title this afternoon at 3:10.
Paola (12-18-5-17—52)
Iola (6-5-13-5—29)
Paola (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Johnson 2/3-3-2-16, Paulsen 0-4-0-4, Williams 0/1-1-0-4, Farmer 2-0-2-4, Lauden 3-2-1-8, Ozier 1-0-0-2, Frederick 1-0-0-2, Slawson 1-0-0-2, Moala 4-0-2-8, Morgan 1-0-2-2. TOTALS: 15/4-10-11-52.
Iola (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Long 0/1-1-0-4, Moore 0/2-0-2-6, Lohman 2-0-1-4, Endicott 1/3-0-3-11, Platt 0-0-1-0, Driskel 1-0-3-2, Sigg 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 5/6-1-10-29.
Fillies fall to Paola
