The Mustangs have found their new normal and theyre loving it.
On Tuesday night, the Iola boys (8-8) carved up an Osawatomie team, 77-53, that beat them by a point a month ago. On Saturday they nearly knocked off an Anderson County team thats been the class of the Pioneer League and a week before that, they beat a Burlington team on their home court, avenging a 30-point defeat to start league play in December.
Needless to say, head coach Luke Bycroft is pleased.
Theyre finding their way right now and its fun to watch, Bycroft said. Especially when they play the way that they did in the second half. Were not the same team that we were when we played them the first time. Who we are is who weve been over these last two weeks and we need to keep that going.
About that second half:
After playing to a standstill in first half, Bycroft was less than pleased with what we was seeing defensively. Osawatomie was getting easy shots at the bucket, and while Iola was scoring enough to keep pace, it didnt seem sustainable.
In the first half we came out really flat defensively, Bycroft said. They may have scored more in the second half but we just had more energy and it showed in our rebounding. In the first half we only had 12 rebounds and we ended the night with 35. That set the tone.
After senior Blake Ashmore hit a 3 with seconds left to give the Mustangs a slim three-point led at the half, Bycroft was looking for changes.
He decided to attack.
Iola deployed its press to start the second half and sure enough, Osawatomie started to cough up the ball and allow the Mustangs to get some easy transition buckets, turning a three point lead to 10 just a few minutes into the second half.
It gave us some energy, Bycroft said. We knew last time when we pressed them late in the game it made a difference so we just wanted to come out with that just for a little bit for the energy. It got us going.
From there, the Mustangs were dominant. Osawatomie attempted to cut the lead back within 10 but Iola punched back each time, pushing its lead to 12 by the fourth quarter.
The Trojans started to get frustrated and began launching 3-point attempts left and right, almost none of which fell. During that time, the Mustangs systematically grew their lead to 20 with 5:20 to play in the game.
Leading the way in the drubbing was junior Cal Leonard who has been solid all season, consistently scoring in double figures. Tuesday was no different. Leonard ended the night with 24 points, including five 3-pointers.
He shot the ball really well tonight and he defended and rebounded, Bycroft said. He worked his tail off. All of his shots were good shots and he let other people set up those shots and hes such an outstanding shooter when he does that.
Senior Derek Bycroft ended the night with an 11 point, 10 rebound double-double and Ashmore had 10 points.
Iola will try to keep this good energy rolling tonight when it hosts Prairie View. The Mustangs handled Prairie View 76-60 when they first met on Dec. 14 and Bycroft sees tonight going about the same, if the Mustangs play how theyre capable.
