For a few fleeting moments, Iola High’s boys showed just how potent they can be on the basketball court.
In a span of about 90 seconds, the Mustangs rattled off 10 straight points against their unbeaten rivals from the east, Fort Scott, turning a 12-point margin into a 27-25 deficit at halftime.
“We were doing exactly what we wanted to do,” head coach Luke Bycroft said. “We were faster than they were, and we wanted to play fast and attack them downhill.
“But the rest of the game, we did not.”
Fort Scott responded quickly, scoring the first 10 points after intermission. Iola never got within single digits after that in a 63-45 loss.
The defeat, in Iola’s first home game of the season, drops the Mustangs to 4-3.
“This was not the way we wanted to come out,” Bycroft said. “We came out dead flat. We just stood in the lane and watched them do what they wanted. We weren’t active at all. They’re not 20 points better than we are, but they are if we play like that.”
The game was nip and tuck early, with neither team doing much offensively, until Fort Scott’s Dub Chipman beat the first-quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer to push the Tigers ahead 13-6.
Spencer Goldston’s trey early in the second quarter kept the momentum for Fort Scott until Iola’s Cortland Carson found his shooting touch.
The score was 27-15 when Carson sandwiched 3-pointers around a driving Landon Weide layup. Weide followed with a traditional 3-point play, and suddenly, Iola was within 27-24. Lucas Maier’s free throw with 5 seconds left cut the margin to two.
But Fort Scott’s 6-6 center Rocco Loffredo opened the second half with a pair of buckets, followed by back-to-back Goldston 3-pointers, and suddenly, Iola was down 37-25.
Maier ended Iola’s drought with a field goal, and Carson connected again from downtown, but Iola could not slow down Fort Scott’s offense from there.
Loffredo erupted for eight points in the quarter and six in the fourth to allow the Tigers to keep safely ahead.
“We just didn’t finish our shots at the rim,” Bycroft said. “They were challenged, but those are shots we need to put in the hole. We knew their guards were gonna be physical, and they were. We were just soft with the ball.”
Weide kept things from getting out of hand, usually by driving relentlessly to the basket for attempted layups. He wound up with 17 to lead the Mustangs.
“He got downhill quite a bit, and their help defense was late, too,” Bycroft said. “Once we started attacking and playing physical at the rim, we were all right. We just missed a handful of those shots we needed to knock down.”
Carson scored 13 with three assists. Maier led with six rebounds, while Grady Dougherty and Mac Leonard had five rebounds each. Weide also had two steals.
