To say the Iola boys aren’t making strides in their play at this point in the season would be untrue.
Over the past week, they’ve made definite steps and have shown how great of a potential they have during their win last Friday versus Burlington and on the road on Tuesday when they beat Prairie View 58-45.
The problem is, when they’ve shown these glimpses of greatness, their history of not-so-greatness has reared its ugly head and made a very good team look average at times.
Iola’s win over the Buffalos marked its third win over a Prairie View team that’s struggled so far this season (they’re 2-13 after Tuesday night) and all three of the wins had an average margin of victory of around 11 points.
Meanwhile, Prairie View is a team that’s lost by 19 or more seven times this season.The good teams they have played have crushed them. And while there were times Tuesday where the Mustangs did stampede the Buffalos, Prairie View still found itself within single digits late in the second quarter.
“We don’t know how to continue playing with the same intensity,” head coach Luke Bycroft said. “When we play well for a stretch we get comfortable and flat. We don’t know how to keep playing at the same level. We talk about it a lot. We need to win the next possession, no matter what the score is. That’s where we want to be and we’re not there yet.”
Having said that, when Iola started the game, they may have been the best they’ve ever looked.
A 14-0 run to start the game led to a 20-5 first quarter. The offense and defense were clicking. Prairie View’s zone defense was being torn to shreds thanks to good passing and excellent shot selection.
Everything that Iola wanted in the lane, they got. No questions asked.
Defensively, nearly every shot was contested, every shot was rebounded and the longer the run went, the more anxious Prairie View became, turning the ball over multiple times. It was near poetry in motion. Dr. Naismith couldn’t have drawn it up better.
However, once the second quarter started, the Mustangs were brought down to earth and the Buffalos outscored them by three in the quarter to close out the half.
“We were just a little flat defensively,” Bycroft said. “I think they played hard but they didn’t have that intensity. We weren’t challenging shots and we weren’t rebounding. We let them back in the game. Our shot selection also got very poor. In the first half we were getting everything we wanted in the lane but then we started to force it. Our offense got ugly.”
Senior forwards Evan Sigg and Ethan Holloway took their regular spots at the front scoring 21 and 18 in the win while no other Mustang scored more than five. The guard play that was so good last Friday versus Burlington just couldn’t get their shots to fall.
“Honestly if we do hit some of those outside shots that we took that were good looks, it stretches the lead a little bit and it stops their defense from sagging in,” Bycroft said. “That makes a difference. When those shots aren’t falling you have to win by rebounding and defending and we didn’t do that well at times. We still won the game, but we didn’t win it pretty because we didn’t do some of the dirty work.”
Iola led by as much as 14 in the third quarter before a 14-6 Prairie View run to start the fourth quarter cut the Mustang lead to just five.
The free throw line was kind though as Iola made six and another bucket to close out the game strong on an 8-0 run.
