BURLINGTON — Things went from bad to worse in a hurry Friday for Iola High.
The Mustangs wound up trailing by double digits by the end of the first quarter against Burlington, and could never recover, eventually falling 68-33, to fall to 5-8 on the season.
Even worse, Iola may be without the services of junior Tre Wilson, who has emerged as one of the team’s key contributors, after he left in the second half with an ankle injury.
“That certainly doesn’t help,” Mustang head coach Luke Bycroft said. “He’s really been coming on.”
Most disappointing, Bycroft continued, was the Mustangs’ inability to meet any of the three key tenets he set forth prior to Friday’s tip-off — 1. To keep up with Burlington’s ball movement; 2. To control rebounds; 3. To limit turnovers.
Instead, Iola turned the ball over 21 times, was limited to 24 rebounds, while Burlington was able to get to the rim early and often.
The Wildcats jumped out to an 18-8 lead after one quarter, and stretched it to 37-17 by the break. That margin swelled to 57-28 by the end of the third quarter.
Bycroft refused to list Thursday’s grueling four-point loss to Santa Fe Trail as a factor in Iola’s play less than 24 hours later.
“I’m sure they’re tired, but that’s when you’re supposed to work even harder to do the right thing,” he said. “We worked hard enough in practice that playing a game a night before shouldn’t matter. When you get tired, you start making mental mistakes, and we just didn’t have that mental edge.”
Cortland Carson led Iola with 14 points, followed by Lucas Maier with seven. Grady Dougherty pulled down five rebounds and two steals. Carson, Wilson and Jordy Kaufman all had two steals. Hayden Kelley dished out a pair of assists.
Sage Fejfar led a trio of Burlington players in double figures with 20 points. Mason Collins was next with 14 and Maddux Cheever scored 11.
“We’re trying to change the whole approach to what Iola does,” he continued. “We’ve got three tough games next week, starting with a long road trip Tuesday.”
Iola gets another rematch against Santa Fe Trail at Carbondale Tuesday before another makeup game at Osawatomie Thursday.
Then, comes a home game Friday against perennial rival Chanute.
“That’s three tough teams,” Bycroft said. “We need to respond better than we did tonight. We’ve gotta find a way to get a win, get some confidence.”
Iola (8-9-11-5—33)
FG/3pt FT F TP
Dougherty 2 0 3 4
Beckmon 1 0 3 2
Carson 5 4 1 14
Coffield 0 1 1 1
Wilson 1 2 4 3
Kaufman 1 0 0 2
Maier 3 1 0 7
Totals 13 7 10 33
Burlington (18-19-20-11—68)
