CHANUTE — After a dismal start, Iola High’s girls had righted their ship, and looked all the world like they had host Chanute on the ropes Friday evening.
The Mustangs endured an early Blue Comet run and trailed 21-9 in the early moments of the second quarter.
But the momentum shifted in Iola’s favor as the Mustangs began getting the ball inside to post players Reese Curry and Keira Fawson.
Curry and Fawson took turns scoring over the shorter Blue Comet defenders, providing all 11 of Iola’s points as the gap closed to 25-20 with 2 minutes left in the half.
But the run — and Iola’s hopes of winning — ended abruptly.
Iola committed four straight turnovers to end the half as Chanute put the game away with seven straight points. The Blue Comets extended Iola’s scoring drought to seven scoreless minutes until Fawson connected inside with 3 minutes left in the third quarter.
By then, Chanute had opened an 18-point lead, and cruised from there in a 50-36 victory.
The loss drops Iola to 4-9 on the season with another tough matchup Tuesday against Prairie View on the horizon.
“That’s why losses like this are so hard,” Iola head coach Kelsey Johnson said. “They show so many spurts of really good basketball. That’s why my expectations of them are so high.
“This was a missed opportunity,” Johnson continued. “We are so much better than this.”
Turnovers were the main culprit.
Iola turned the ball over 19 times in the first half, “and the second half wasn’t much better,” Johnson said.
Did Chanute change tactics to regain momentum?
“No, they did exactly the same thing they’d done all game,” Johnson replied. “Unfortunately, so did we.”
Fawson — who missed Iola’s previous two games after suffering a concussion and aggravating her broken nose in practice — and Curry both scored 11 for the Mustangs. Fawson’s night included taking another blow to the face as she scrapped for the ball in the first quarter.
