Fillies get back on winning track, go for third

LOUISBURG — Kendra Taiclet just took over in the third quarter when her team, Iola High’s Fillies, fell behind Louisburg High’s Wildcats 17-12.
Taiclet scored nine unanswered points to help lead the Fillies to a 38-32 win over the hosting team at the Bulldog/Wildcat Classic Tuesday. Taiclet had 19 of her game-high 24 points in the second half as Iola evened its tournament pool play mark at 1-1.
The Fillies (2-1) moved into the third-place game Friday. They have to wait to find out their opponent. As the other pool finishes play Thursday. It will be Chanute or Anderson County as Baldwin decked Anderson County 48-24 Tuesday and beat Chanute Monday.
“We just played with a lot of confidence in the second half. We got beat by a very good Burlington team Monday and our confidence wasn’t back to where it needs to be in the first half tonight,” said Becky Carlson, Fillies’ head coach.
“The key to this game was our defense. We did a good job of stopping the inside play of Louisburg and we had kids step up at both ends.”
Louisburg’s inside play came in the form of 6-1 Brook Frazier, 6-3  Maddie DeShazer and 5-10 Anna Bell. Frazier finished with four points while DeShazer and Bell each had three points.
Kelsey Larson did not have a field goal for Iola. The senior guard did go 9 of 12 at the free-throw line, claim seven rebounds and made four steals. Taiclet was 7 of 9 at the line and had six rebounds.
Carlson pointed to the play of senior post player Lisa McFadden with five points. McFadden and classmate Kelsey Adams were inside most of the night against bigger girls. Taiclet, 5-10, helped on the inside also.
Iola was up 6-4 at the end of the first quarter. McFadden sank two free throws to open the second period. The Wildcats pushed to a 9-8 lead when Brook Vaughan hit a three-point field goal and Bailey Aiken scored in a 40-second span at the midway mark.
The teams traded a free throw then Taiclet had a three-point play to give Iola a 12-10 lead with 54.5 seconds remaining in the first half. Vaughn downed two charities to forge a 12-12 halftime tie.
Frazier, who came off the bench for Louisburg, was a big presence inside but only had two field goals. One came in the Wildcats’ third-quarter five-point opening volley.
Taiclet went to work with three straight baskets and she finished the run with a three-pointer at the 1:33 mark. A free throw by McFadden made it 22-19 going into the fourth quarter.
Larson sank two free throws to start the fourth quarter for Iola. The Fillies — mainly Larson and Taiclet — would cash in 12 of 18 attempts at the line in the final eight minutes. For the game, Iola shot 70 percent, 19 of 27, from the line.
Vaughn, who hit two threes, had 11 points for Louisburg. The Wildcats were 8 of 14 at the free-throw line.
Iola (6-6-10-16—38) (FG/3-pt): 0-9-3-9, Taiclet 7/1-7-0-24, Toney 0-0-2-0, Endicott 0-0-1-0, McFadden 1-3-3-5, Adams 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 8/1-19-11-38.
Louisburg (4-8-7-13—32) (FG/3-pt): Vaughan 0/2-5-4-11, Henderson 0-0-4-0, Aiken 1-1-1-3, Hutchison 3-0-4-6, Geiman 1-0-2-2, DeShazer 1-1-0-3, Bell 1-1-3-3, Frazier 2-0-4-4. TOTALS: 9/2-8-22-32.