Iola Middle School’s girl’s basketball teams had a rough go of it at home Monday against Burlington. The seventh-grade B team lost 14-2. The seventh-grade A team lost 23-16. The eighth-grade team lost 35-0.
“There were some good things and things we need to work on,” said IMS head coach Cristy Turner. “We didn’t play as well as we should have and that’s on me.”
The seventh-grade B team started slow and was held scoreless until a fourth-quarter bucket by Navaeh Hancock.
The seventh-grade B team was the most competitive of Iola’s three teams. They started fast, scoring 10 points by halftime, but could never match Burlington. Iola struggled to score in the fourth, scoring only two points. Zoie Hasse scored six points. Brooklyn Holloway scored four points. Dally Curry, Annie House, and Lynsie Fehr each scored two points.
The eighth-grade game was the definition of domination by Burlington. Iola dug a deep hole early and trailed 21-0 at the half. The Mustangs were plagued by turnovers and passes that didn’t connect. Iola passed the ball well at times, but was hampered by penalties and missed shots. Iola was missing two players, both out with illness.
“It’s hard to play with only seven kids,” Turner said. “We only had two guards. I thought they played hard and we got better in the second half. This week we worked on rebounding a lot and the girls focused on that.”
Iola has a quick turnaround. The Mustangs head to Anderson County Tuesday. The Mustangs just want to get better.
“We need to work on boxing out and fundamentals,” Turner said. “A lot of these kids haven’t played a ton of basketball so getting those smaller things to turn into big things is the goal for us.”
