WELLSVILLE — The recipe for a 73-46 loss to host Wellsville came from ineffective defense and an inability to get rebounds, Iola High head coach Luke Bycroft said Friday.
“They were good at getting second chances, and they wouldn’t let us have another shot at a rebound,” Bycroft lamented.
The host Eagles shot the ball well, were solid on defense and crisp with their passes.
And when Wellsville couldn’t get shots to fall, they were particularly effective at getting offensive rebounds.
“Defensively, we were bad, but the biggest issue was the rebounding.”
The Eagles held a 40 to 23 advantage on the boards.
The loss drops Iola to 5-4 as the Mustangs head into midseason tournament week with the War on 54 beginning Tuesday evening at Iola’s high school and elementary school gymnasiums.
Iola hosts St. Paul at about 8 p.m. Tuesday in the IHS gym.
That doesn’t give the Mustangs much time to lament Friday’s disappointment.
“It’s frustrating,” Bycroft said. “This was stuff we worked on over and over again all week. We didn’t have a game Tuesday, so we had four days to work on defensive rotations and boxing out, but it didn’t translate.”
THE EAGLES took control after a back-and-forth first quarter pushed Wellsville ahead, 17-14.
But early foul trouble sent the Mustangs’ Landon Weide to the bench early in the second quarter, about the time the Eagles took full control.
Wellsville put together a 21-4 run to push ahead, 50-26, in the third quarter.
The run included several missed opportunities for Iola, in which the Mustangs were able to get to the basket but weren’t able to finish.
That stemmed from Iola’s lack of physicality, Bycroft said.
“We avoided contact,” he said. “We shot going backwards, and not going through contact to the rim. It might have made a difference in the first half.”
