After leaving Thursdays 18-point win frustrated, fuming and forlorn, Iola head coach Luke Bycroft could not have been more pleased by what his team brought to the court on Friday.
The Mustangs handled Kansas City Christian School 60-48 in the fifth-place game of the 2018 Ike Cearfoss Tournament, moving their overall record to 2-1 this season.
We were under control while we were playing hard and sometimes thats tough for us to do, Bycroft said. Tonight we had a lot of intensity and effort which we lacked yesterday. It was what we wanted to see.
Both teams left the first quarter tied at 12 but three second-quarter threes in the first several minutes opened Iolas lead to seven, pushing the Panthers out of their zone.
We preach ball movement and thats where our jump shots were coming from, Bycroft said. We didnt hit a ton of threes, aside from the second quarter, which gave us that separation, but overall we took good shots. So when we were missing from outside it didnt matter because we were still making good decisions on when to shoot them.
The Mustangs continued to distance themselves and pushed their lead to 10 by the four and half minute mark and headed into halftime up 13.
It wasnt all smooth sailing though as KC Christian came out of the half with a much more physical mindset. After Iola pushed its lead to 14 which was the largest of the night, the Panthers started to chip away. Iolas lead fell to five several times including at the tail end of the quarter.
It put us in a different mindset for a little while, Bycroft said. We started forcing stuff and we got in a hurry, If we thought we had a quick early shot, wed take it instead of running our stuff. So it was that and the fact that we got a little sloppy. Six of our 12 total turnovers came in that quarter and that let them back in briefly.
But things turned back around just as fast and the Mustangs, thanks in part to a strong rebounding effort against a taller KC Christian team, pulled away and got their lead back above 10 and it stayed there for the final six minutes of the game.
Im ecstatic with our 32 rebounds considering how much zone we played, Bycroft said. Our goal is 35 but its much harder to do that when youre always not under the basket like you are in man. When we boxed out, we handled physical contact and still got the ball and we didnt get pushed around.
It was a balanced effort for Iola led by senior Blake Ashmore who had 14 and junior Cal Leonard who had 13. Junior Calvin Delich had 10 and senior Kane Rogers had nine. Seniors Derek Bycroft and Hunter Preston each had five and senior Cole Regehr had four.
The Mustangs now head into regular season play with the always tough Burlington Wildcats waiting for them at home on Tuesday.
(Burlington) is actually going to play a similar style of play to (KC Christain), Bycroft said. But theyre not as long as the guys weve played in this tournament. So I hope that these games have prepared us.
