The lesson entering Friday’s War on 54 finale for Iola High’s Mustangs was to learn to quickly flush the emotions of a hard-fought loss the night before.
Iola was denied a shot at defending its tournament championship with a 53-50 loss to Humboldt Thursday, which put the Mustangs in Friday’s third-place game with Marmaton Valley.
Iola rebounded nicely, riding a 30-point scoring night from Cortland Carson, with plenty of contributions elsewhere in the lineup to emerge with a 67-44 win over the Wildcats.
Iola improves to 5-6, while Marmaton Valley falls to 7-4.
“I was more worried about how we were going to do things” than the final score, Mustang head coach Luke Bycroft said. “Can you forget about (Thursday) night, and worry about today. That’s how you have to approach every single game, whether you win or lose.”
Much like it did in a loss to Anderson County the night before, Marmaton Valley gave Iola a good run, at least early.
The teams were knotted at 15-15 after one before Carson scored 15 of Iola’s 21 points in the second quarter to give the Mustangs a 36-23 lead at the break.
The weary Wildcats had no answers in the second half as the lead grew to 55-31 by the end of the third quarter.
“That’s a good team,” Marmaton Valley head coach Cornell Walls said. “Their bench is deep. We came out ready to play, and we showed we could compete at that level.
“We’ve just gotta be consistent for four quarters. Our guys got a little worn out tonight.”
“After we got the lead, we were a little more patient,” Bycroft said. “We really focused on rotating a lot better on the defensive end. We were able to challenge the ball and rotate behind them.”
Nine other Mustangs reached the scoring column, an encouraging sign if Iola is to have a successful second half of the 2024-25 campaign, Bycroft said.
“We need those guys to get a few buckets apiece out of the halfcourt, not just in transition,” Bycroft said. “These guys were doing it.”
Tyler Lord paced Marmaton Valley with 12 points, followed by Jaedon Granere, who missed the second half of his semifinal game due to illness, scored eight.
“He was a little sluggish at school, but we got him some vitamins and liquid IV, and he was good to go,” Walls said.
