RICHMOND Early lessons were learned Monday night after the Iola boys lost their season opener 75-60 to Metro Academy in the opening round of the Ike Cearfoss Tournament at Central Heights High School on Monday.
For the Mustangs, it was their first taste of the 2018-19 season and unfortunately, they had to line up against a team that was 8-4 coming into Mondays game.
The Mavericks play at a private school in Shawnee Mission that is not affiliated with KSHSAA so while most of the state started their season either late last week or Monday night, Metro Academy got things going back on Nov. 9.
Iola head coach Luke Bycroft said that the extra playing time was not the main reason the Mavericks came away with a double-digit win over Iola but that added experience certainly put the Mustangs at a disadvantage.
Its big especially from the standpoint of correcting mistakes, Bycroft said. You try to replicate game speed in practice but its just not the same so you have to find opportunities in-game to correct things and we just havent had those opportunities yet. Its a factor, it really is. Later in the year, when were more in game shape, I think we would beat this team.
Unfortunately, the Mustangs couldnt wait until March to face the Mavericks, and the lack of experience was evident almost immediatley. Metro started the game strong and aggressive on both ends of the floor, limiting Iola to just two buckets for most of the first half, pushing their lead all of the way to 24-10 by the end of the first quarter.
Their aggressiveness absolutely hurt us, Bycroft said. And we talked about it ahead of time because we saw it on film. But we also saw that their defensive rotation wasnt that good and I knew that if we played smart, we could take advantage of that, but initially we didnt.
But the Mustangs werent about to lay down. In the second quarter, shots started to fall and Iolas quick guards took advantage of a Metro defense that was overplaying the ball at times.
Midway through the quarter that 14 point-lead was cut to six and at the two-minute mark, it was down to three.
Metros experience was matched by talent. At the end of the half, they went on a 6-0 run to push their halftime lead to 35-26.
Even with the run, the Mustangs went into the half pleased with their second quarter efforts and confident that they could keep chiseling away at the Mavericks.
That did not hold true.
Metro came out possessed, hitting nearly every shot aside from some missed free throws in the quarter, outcoring the Mustangs 22-12 and pushing their lead to nearly 20 heading into the fourth quarter.
They didnt miss a lot of shots, Bycroft said. We had our eye on two kids coming into today and those two did a pretty good job and then a couple of others made some really good shots. And at times we guarded them well and they still hit the shot. Were not where we want to be defensively though. Weve got to do a better job of guarding and challenging shooters. But they did shoot extremely well, inside and out.
But, just like in the second quarter, the Mustangs refused to allow Metro to completely trample them. The Iola defense picked up and more shots started to fall. And while the Mustangs didnt get any closer than 12 for the rest of the game, they left with their dignity very much intact.
I do think we played hard as a whole, Bycroft said. Now I also think were not in good enough shape to play hard for the entire game. There was a point late in the third quarter where we just looked gassed and they were blowing by us and getting shots. We have to improve that but Im happy with the effort tonight. This is not our ceiling, this is our floor. Were only going to get better.
