After playing one of their most inspired halves of basketball this season Tuesday, Iola High’s Mustangs entered the locker room feeling good about their chances.
They outshot, outhustled and outscored their visitors from Wellsville, 25-20, at intermission.
But the effort came at a cost.
“We exerted so much energy out there,” Mustang head coach Luke Bycroft said. “After halftime, we just didn’t look the same.”
Wellsville took full advantage, blitzing Iola with 42 second-half points and winning, 62-46.
The loss drops Iola to 11-8 on the season with one more regular season contest Thursday at Santa Fe Trail before next week’s Class 3A Sub-State Tournament tips off.
Iola already is assured of the fourth seed and will host Olathe’s Heritage Christian Academy (10-10) at 7 p.m. Monday. The winner will advance to the semifinal round against either top seed Humboldt (18-2) or No. 8 seed Prairie View (3-17) Feb. 29 at Wellsville, the host site for the semifinal and final rounds.
The Eagles are the No. 2 seed and will host Osawatomie Monday. West Franklin and Anderson County also are on Wellsville’s side of the bracket.
Because Iola’s postseason matchup is set, Bycroft said the Mustangs will focus less on the final score in Thursday’s finale and more on their quality of play.
“We need to do the little things well,” he said. “We won’t show anything crazy. We’re just gonna try to do what we do well and finish with some energy. We need to defend, rebound and take care of the ball.”
Iola did plenty of that against Wellsville at the start.
Nick Bauer’s 3-pointer led to back-to-back layups from Landon Weide as Iola took a 15-9 lead into the second quarter.
Mac Leonard and Cortland Carson scored early in the second period to cap an 11-0 Mustang run, giving Iola a 19-9 cushion.
Leonard’s bucket late in the second quarter gave Iola a 25-17 lead before Wellsville’s Willie Dorsey drilled a 3-pointer to pull the Eagles to within five, 25-20. (More on him later.)
Bycroft suggested, only half-jokingly, that while Iola had played the first two quarters with a white-hot intensity, the Mustangs may have been better served without an extended break.
“Once we got stopped, it was hard to get them going,” Bycroft said. “If we’d have just had a one-minute break, we might have been able to keep the energy.”
But as Iola’s energy waned in the third quarter, Wellsville found another gear.
