MELVERN — Iola High’s Mustangs are entering the most important part of their season and are doing so playing their best basketball to date.
Iola ruined Santa Fe Trail’s Senior Night on Thursday with a 57-41 thrashing of the Chargers.
“Probably as quality of a win as we’ve had all year,” Iola coach Jay Applegate said.
The night began about as poorly as it could for the Mustangs. Applegate switched around the starting lineup and Santa Fe Trail took advantage and raced out to a 20-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“We got behind 12 points early and we had the fortitude to play some lockdown defense,” Applegate said. “We’re not very good at penetration defense but we did a better job tonight.”
Star big man Ethan Holloway and starting wing Joey Zimmerman began the game on the bench for Applegate. Zimmerman’s was due to a matchup situation against the Chargers, while Holloway’s was a minor disciplinary action, that shouldn’t affect the team moving forward.
“Rotation has been getting smaller and it needs to do that to play quality,” Applegate said.
Holloway made up for lost time when he entered the game and quickly made his 6-6 presence known.
“I definitely had to come out and show something,” Holloway said of coming off the bench. “I couldn’t come out dead just because I goofed up and couldn’t start. I had to come out and produce.”
The sophomore scored a game-high 17 points, but really terrorized the Chargers with his defense presence.
“Anything I can do to help out the team is what I’m going to do,” Holloway said. “I’m going to give it my all so if intimidation (with shot-blocking) is what I can do I’ll do it.”
According to Applegate, this is the type of performance from Holloway the team needs going forward into substate.
“We don’t necessary want him to get blocks,” Applegate said. “We want him to intimidate shots.”
The Mustangs used the superb showing from Holloway to roar back in the second quarter and take a 31-25 lead into the intermission.
The Chargers answered back in the third quarter. A strong defense cut the margin to one at 38-37 heading into the final stanza.
Point guard Ben Cooper shone in crunch-time for the Mustangs — who outscored the Chargers 19-4 in the final period. Cooper led the way with all seven of his points coming in the final eight minutes.
