GARNETT — Anderson County High’s basketball team was in the mother of all hot zones to start Monday’s tilt against Iola.
The Bulldogs drilled six 3-pointers on seven attempts in the opening quarter against Iola’s boys.
Mustang head coach Luke Bycroft knew the Bulldogs’ shooting touch would cool.
“There’s no way anybody could sustain that,” he noted.
Problem was, Anderson County didn’t need to.
After their blistering start from outside, the Bulldogs effectively pounded the ball down low the rest of the night against the Mustang defense.
A 13-2 Anderson County run to start the second half put the Bulldogs in control. Iola pulled within four points down the stretch on multiple occasions, but could get no closer.
The resulting 65-58 defeat puts a sour note on Iola’s busiest week of the season. Monday marks the first of four games in four nights for the Mustangs to wrap up the regular season.
Iola is at Wellsville tonight before returning home Wednesday and Thursday against Osawatomie and Santa Fe Trail, respectively.
It can’t come soon enough for the Mustangs, who hope to bounce back from what Bycroft called their worst defensive game of the season.
“That was the worst defense we’ve played all year, against a very average offensive team,” he said. “The last two weeks, we’ve been so flat on defense. We were bad against Prairie View (a narrow win), bad against Chanute (in a loss) and we were bad tonight. We just didn’t want to rotate at all, we didn’t want to move to the ball at all. And when we did force them into a tough shot, they got the rebound.”
Despite Anderson County’s torrid start, Iola was effective at getting the ball inside. The Bulldogs led 19-18 after one quarter.
Jack Adams scored late in the half to give Iola a 31-30 lead at the break in a half that featured 10 lead changes and six ties.
Dalton Kellerman scored for the Bulldogs in the early seconds of the third period to put Anderson County on top for good. His bucket with 4:30 left in the period gave Anderson County a 53-43 lead.
Dillon Bycroft’s 3-pointer late in the third triggered a 6-1 Iola run to slice the deficit to 46-41, but Reese Jarett’s trey and two free throws suddenly had the lead back in double digits for the Bulldogs.
Dillon Bycroft started the fourth period on a high note, with back-to-back jumpers, and Adams followed with a steal and layup to pull Iola within 51-47 with 6:20 left.
