It took a while for Iola High to slow down Cherryvale’s offense Friday afternoon.
The Chargers broke out of the gates with 18 first-quarter points to take a lead they’d never relinquish.
The Mustangs found their footing from there, closing the deficit to seven in the second half, but Cherryvale answered every charge with a 54-39 victory.
The loss, in the third-place game of the War on 54 Tournament, drops Iola to 4-8 on the season.
“We just had a couple of breakdowns,” Mustang head coach Kelsey Johnson said, “where we lost track of who we were guarding or we didn’t box out. And Cherryvale’s a good team.”
The Chargers took a 30-19 lead into halftime.
Iola was able to cope against the Chargers’ pressure defense throughout the second half.
Zoie Hesse came off the bench to score inside early in the fourth quarter. Her steal and layup on Cherryvale’s next possession pulled Iola to within eight with 4:02 left.
Jackie Fager, who narrowly missed getting a steal at midcourt minutes earlier, was more successful her second time around. She was fouled as she drove to the hoop. She went 1 of 2 from the line to make it 46-39.
But Iola’s scoring went dry down the stretch.
The Mustangs committed a pair of turnovers, missed two free throws and was off the mark on its only field goal attempt in the last half of the quarter as the Charges ended the game on an 8-0 run.
“I don’t want to blame it on three games in three days, because everybody has three games,” Johnson said. “The girls played hard. I was pleased with their effort.”
The Mustangs resume regular season action on Friday at home against Burlington, a game Iola lost by four in mid-December.
“We’re definitely headed in the right direction,” Johnson said. “We’re a different team than the last time we played them. The girls should be ready for that one.”
For that matter, Johnson notes Iola has lifted its game across the board since the first of the year.
