PARSONS — Iola Middle School’s eighth-grade A-team were shutout the first quarter but only trailed 19-15 at halftime Monday.
Parsons Middle School’s Vikings went on to beat the visiting Ponies 44-35.
“This was about as hard as I’ve had a basketball team play for four quarters,” said Marty Taylor, IMS head coach.
“We weren’t always playing smart but we were on the floor after the ball more than we were on our feet.”
Brice Aiello fired in 14 points and cleared six rebounds for Iola. Brett Taylor scored 11 points. Keanan Badders had eight points and eight rebounds. Gus Hopkins scored two points.
“Keanan was outstanding tonight. He was tough inside for us,” Taylor said.
Iola lost all four games played Monday.
Parsons won the eighth-grade B-team game 30-12. Zach St. Clair led Iola with six points. Scoring two points each were Jake Gumfory, Isiah Shaughnessy and Dodger Beckham.
Parsons jumped out to a 16-2 lead in the seventh-grade A-team game. Iola found itself down 36-12 after three quarters then had a 13-2 run to lose 38-25.
Braden Plumlee paced the Ponies with eight points and 10 rebounds. Chase Regehr tossed in six points and grabbed six rebounds.
Ben Cooper scored five points. Scoring two points each were Gage Cleaver, Joey Zimmerman and Ethan Scheibmeir.
“We let the press bother us early but after the first quarter we played much better,” Taylor said.
In the seventh-grade B-team game, Parsons won 26-17.
Xavier Carey had six points and Darius Greenawalt added four. Cleaver scored three while Nate Evans and Colton Toney each scored two.
The IMS teams are at Columbus today.
