Iola High took care of business on the basketball court Tuesday.
The Mustangs weren’t at their best, head coach Luke Bycroft admitted, but showed signs of snapping out of their defensive funk as they opened the War on 54 Tournament with a 68-31 win over St. Paul.
“I don’t feel like we played exceptionally well, but we were better defensively in the second half, and we did a better job of attacking in transition.”
The Mustangs were never threatened, jumping out to a 17-8 lead after one quarter, but also had trouble putting the game away against the short-handed Indians squad.
St. Paul suited up only six players.
“We missed a lot of shots at the rim,” Bycroft said. “We forced some bad shots early, and then we missed shots we normally make.”
The Mustangs led 34-20 at the break and 48-29 after three.
Bycroft switched up his playing rotation early, giving younger reserves more playing time in the process.
Iola’s depth really began to show down the stretch as the Mustangs ended the game with a 20-2 run.
“We weren’t real fluid, but there was some good stuff,” he said. “We tried to use this as an opportunity to learn and grow, and I’m hoping we did. We’ll find out more Thursday.”
Iola advances to the semifinal round against Marmaton Valley, which defeated Cherryvale in its opening-round matchup. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. Thursday in the IHS gymnasium. St. Paul takes on Cherryvale in consolation bracket play at 8 p.m. Thursday at Iola Elementary School.
With Bycroft substituting liberally from the get-go, several Mustangs had their chances to shine.
Landon Weide, showing few lingering effects from an ankle injury suffered Friday at Wellsville, led the way with 17 points, three steals and seven assists.
Mac Leonard added 14 points, while Cortland Carson scored 12 and Matt Beckmon scored 10. Nick Bauer came off the bench to get five steals. Beckmon also had three steals.
Zakary Kirkpatrick scored 15 to lead St. Paul. Riley Vitt was next with eight.
St. Paul (8-12-9-2—31)
