Both the Iola girls and boys teams kept the home crowd in their seats with some stellar play against some very good Santa Fe Trail teams Thursday night.
The Mustangs (8-12) cranked up the intensity for their final regular season game and made it a single digit game, including taking a halftime lead, but came up short, 50-41. The Iola girls (6-15) also played one of their hardest fought games of the year in a 74-59 loss.
The teams also recognized their senior team members. The Iola senior boys included Eli Adams, Preston Hurst and Cody Wille. Seniors on the girls side were Aysha Houk, Hallie McDermeit and Gabby Sharp.
Iola girls
The Mustangs forced many turnovers and capitalized by scoring points in the paint in their 74-59 loss.
Senior Aysha Houk had a big night, scoring 23 points.
In the first quarter, Houk hit a three and teammate Reese Curry posted up a layup through the opening four minutes to give Iola a slim 5-4 early lead.
“They didn’t want to leave anything out there and say they could’ve tried harder here or there. They all really bought into that,” said Iola head coach Kelsey Johnson of the match. “They’ve really practiced well the past couple of days.”
Mustang Keira Fawson found the basket when she went for a layup and drew a free throw to give her Iola squad an 11-7 lead with a minute left in the first quarter.
Santa Fe Trail’s Ajah Banks and Whitney Herren then banked in layups to put Iola down 13-11 heading to the second.
Curry put Iola back ahead on a layup a couple minutes into the second quarter, 22-18, before the Chargers were fouled and took advantage of their free throws, knocking down four. Iola and Santa Fe Trail were tied at 29-29 at halftime.
Iola took another lead shortly into the second half on a Jackie Fager three but Santa Fe Trail created an 8-4 scoring run to take a 54-42 lead.
“This gives us a ton of confidence which is huge for our girls,” Johnson said. “They need that confidence to know they can do these things. Jackie hit a three for us tonight. She’s only shot two three’s all year so that tells you right there where the confidence is.”
Braegan Buessing scored nine points and Abby Clark and Kaelee Washington each netted five points in the third quarter to put Santa Fe Trail ahead with their largest lead of the night. The Chargers kept up the momentum in the fourth, scoring 22 points to pull away by 15. 
Washington scored five more points including a trio of free throws and Clark scored another five including a three to set back Iola in a 74-59 loss.
