Yes, Iola High’s boys knew they were gonna have to traverse a season-ending gauntlet of four games in four days against some talented foes.
Certainly, head coach Luke Bycroft would much rather have seen the Mustangs end the season better than the 1-3 mark across those four games, including Thursday’s 67-50 Senior Night defeat to Santa Fe Trail.
But he also offered a sense of optimism surrounding his team as it embarks on the Class 4A Substate playoffs, which begin Tuesday.
“I’m proud of the effort they put on the floor,” Bycroft said. “This was a hard week. Four games in four nights is tough. Anderson County’s big, Wellsville’s the most physical team in the league, and these guys (Santa Fe Trail) couldn’t miss.”
But it became evident in the second half, after Iola pared a 12-point deficit to 37-36 on Landon Carson’s 3-pointer, that the Mustangs’ fuel tanks were nearing empty.
Santa Fe Trail pushed back out to a nine-point lead over the next 4 minutes, then stretched its margin to double digits for good, early in the fourth.
The Chargers blitzed out of the gates, hitting their first five 3-point attempts.
“These guys hit every shot,” Bycroft said. “And we were guarding them. It was their night. When they’re shooting like that, you have to play perfect basketball. We didn’t play perfect, but we did play hard.”
Bradyn Cole helped keep Iola in the thick of things early, scoring six points before Tyler Boeken scored twice to keep Santa Fe Trails’ lead to 17-16 after one.
The Chargers opened the second quarter with a 13-4 run.
Dillon Bycroft converted a traditional three-point play and Cole’s putback late in the half sliced Iola’s deficit to 32-27.
Carson’s steal and layup opened a 9-3 Iola run to start the third quarter. Dillon Bycoft hit a pair of jumpers leading up to Carson’s trey with 4:52 left in the frame to put Iola within one.
But four straight nights took their toll.
Iola’s shots quit falling, and Santa Fe Trail found its second wind.
“We had good looks and a lot of shots rimmed out that would have kept it pretty reasonable,” Coach Bycroft said. “It got out of hand because we tried to overplay at times.”
Nevertheless, the Mustangs showed a spirit lacking in recent games, he added.
“Tonight was the game when we had the most energy and effort and desire,” Bycroft said. “We can build on that. We can work on execution.”
