BURLINGTON – Iola High Fillies head coach Becky Carlson sees flashes of improvement with her young basketball squad.
“We just need some consistency,” she said.
On Friday, the Fillies battled toe-to-toe against Anderson County in the third and final round of the Burlington Preseason Tournament.
The score stood in Anderson County’s favor, 22-19, when the Lady Bulldogs rang up seven straight points down the stretch.
Iola’s Lexy Long drained a 3-pointer in the final minute, but the Fillies could get no closer in a 29-22 loss.
The defeat drops Iola to 0-4 on the season and 0-3 in the Burlington tournament.
Despite the loss, Carlson left the Burlington Middle School gymnasium encouraged.
“We were more active on defense than we have been,” Carlson said, “and our 1-3-1 zone worked well.”
Carlson also lauded the work of bench players Addie Haar, Reagan Ford and Long.
“Reagan stepped up for us and did a good job,” Carlson said. “Lexie gave us a spark and Addie did a good job of getting around inside and drawing fouls.”
Both squad struggled on offense in the early going.
Labby Shay’s putback with 6:51 left in the first quarter was the only field goal either squad could muster in the game’s first 9½ minutes.
Anderson County was without a field goal until Amanda Moody drained a short jumper early in the second quarter. The basket triggered a six-point run, giving Anderson County an 8-3 lead.
Ford scored twice in the final minutes of the half to cut the gap to 8-7, then Jo Lohman’s bucketgave Iola a 9-8 lead early in the third quarter — Iola’s first post-halftime lead of the season.
Anderson County promptly responded with a 10-0 run over the next four minutes to lead 18-9.
Iola’s Kyra Moore scored at the 3:07 mark of the period, followed by a 3-pointer with Long to close the gap to 18-14.
Haar exerted herself early in the fourth quarter, scoring a bucket before hitting 1 of 2 free throws to close the gap to 22-19 with 5:13 left in the game.
But Anderson County clamped down on defense from there, holding Iola scoreless until Long’s final trey.
Long had six points to lead Iola, followed by Ford with four.
Jaime Mersman scored nine points — all in the second half — to lead Anderson County.
Iola resumes regular season action Tuesday at home against Friday.
Iola (3-4-7-8—22)
Anderson Co. (2-6-12-9—29)
Iola (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Piazza 0-0-2-0, Shay 1-0-1-2, Endicott 0-0-4-0, Driskel 0-1-0-1, Long 0/2-0-1-6, Moore 1-0-1-2, Ford 2-0-1-4, Haar 1-1-0-3. TOTALS: 7/2-2-10-22.
Anderson Co. (FG-FT-F-TP): Prater 1-0-0-2, Stevenson 2-0-3-4, Adams 1-0-2-2, McCullough 0-0-1-0, Yoder 0-0-1-0, Ratliff 2-0-3-4, Moody 0-2-2-4, Scheckel 1-2-2-4, Mersman 4-0-3-8. TOTALS: 13-3-17-29.
Fillies come up short in tourney finale
