BURLINGTON — At the end of every high school basketball season only one team in each class truly ends their season fully satisfied.
Saturday’s 40-36 loss to Burlington in the substate championship will leave a sour taste in the mouths of the Fillies’ basketball team, but they have plenty to be proud of, even in defeat.
The first quarter could not have gone worse for the three-seeded Iola team. In their quest to knock off the top-seeded Burlington Wildcats, the Fillies fell behind 15-3 with their only basket coming on an early Sydney Wade three-pointer.
In addition to the poor start on the scoreboard, senior guard Ashlie Shields quickly got into foul trouble and nearly everyone on the floor seemed like they were in a funk shooting the ball.
“We had some great looks and missed them,” Carlson said. “They made some great shots (in the first quarter) and then after that it was a ball game.”
In the second quarter, Iola began to regain the groove that they’d started to gather over the past couple weeks.
Iola outscored Burlington 8-5 in the quarter and cut the lead to 20-13 at the half.
A pair of Shields’ free throws cut the Wildcat to just five points — the closest the Fillies had been to the lead since early in the first quarter — and it appeared like the goal of making it to state may finally be within reach.
Then the Wildcats answered again.
They ran off five-straight points to take a double digit lead at 25-15.
The Fillies refused to go away though and finished the quarter on a 10-2 run with six of those points coming from junior Toni Macha. Reserve guard Colbi Riley scored the other four as she used her cutting ability to slash to the hoop while Wade orchestrated the offense.
The third quarter ended with Iola within 27-25 and Iola headed to their bench with all the momentum and Burlington trudged to theirs realizing that they had a fight on their hands.
Then the Wildcats answered again.
Burlington reeled off six-straight points to make the margin eight.
Surely they had finally silenced the Fillies.
Della Lohman used her rebounding skills to get a putback and make the margin six.
