The Mustangs needed patience. The Fillies needed consistency.
Both came up short.
In their final games of the 2015 calendar year, Iola High’s boys and girls basketball teams were defeated by the visiting Prairie View Buffalos on Thursday night.
Jay Applegate’s Mustangs lost 39-27 following the 42-34 loss Becky Carlson’s Fillies suffered earlier in the night.
The boys team was hoping to see a more revitalized offense on the court after it struggled to create point-scoring opportunities Tuesday in a loss to Central Heights. Instead, the Mustangs had more of the same problems against the Buffalos — scoring just 12 points through the first three quarters.
Iola dropped to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the Pioneer League.
“We need to get a fire lit under us,” Applegate said. “And I don’t know how we can do that, but we’re going to keep working at it.”
As a remedy to a poor first half performance against the Vikings earlier in the week, Applegate benched his starting lineup for the entire second half of play.
But rather than make the same move Thursday night when the Mustangs sunk just three field goals before the break, Applegate opted to let his team ride it out.
The result was an inspired offense — it was just a little late.
Toward the end of the third quarter, Iola staged a comeback down 32-10. Behind a slew of scores from Evan Sigg, Brett Taylor, Ben Cooper, Braden Plumlee and Isaiah Fawson, the Mustangs closed the gap with a 17-7 run.
“The last four minutes, we played with some aggressiveness and intensity,” Applegate said. “We didn’t do that the first three quarters but did in the last four minutes. We need to do that the whole game.”
Iola finished the fourth with more points in that single quarter (15) than it did the other three quarters combined (12).
Fawson proved to be the scoring catalyst for the Mustangs with 10 points on four of the team’s 10 field goals. The junior guard also had two free throws, accounting for half of the squad’s production from the charity stripe.
Cooper was the only other Iola player to have more than 2 points (5).
Despite the Mustangs’ recent struggles to score, Applegate said he still has confidence in his team to turn it around. The players will participate in a couple of practices early next week before getting the next five days off, which should prove beneficial considering the hectic schedule they had these last two weeks.
“The kids work hard,” Applegate said. “Sometimes they just get in a lackadaisical frame of mind and not very intense. And you got to want it more than the other team. Until the last four minutes of the game, we didn’t want it more than the other team. But we’ll work on it.”
AS FOR the Fillies, Carlson had high hopes entering their matchup with the Buffalos.
On Tuesday, Iola trounced Central Heights behind a fierce combination of timely scoring and shutdown defense. But when the Fillies had the chance to put the Buffalos away Thursday night like they did against the Lady Vikings, the results weren’t as satisfying for Carlson.
“In the first half, we had some great looks at the basket, but we just couldn’t score,” Carlson said. “And then you lose your confidence. I thought we had the same looks as we had the other night, but they just didn’t fall. And then you could just see the frustration.”
Prairie View led 15-11 at the half after Iola managed to knock down just one basket and one free throw in the second quarter. The same team that drowned Central Heights with fast breaks, points off turnovers and clutch free throws was suddenly unable to convert on easy looks.
Still, the Fillies defense held strong, leaving a chance at a second-half comeback. And Carlson’s team didn’t disappoint.
Toni Macha scored 8 of her team-high 13 points after halftime to help Iola take a 27-23 advantage into the final quarter of play. Sydney Wade, who finished the night with 10 points, was also a major factor in the Fillies’ strong third quarter performance.
But the Buffalos charged back in the fourth and held Macha and Wade to 3 total points down the stretch in order to regain the lead with only about two minutes on the clock. Prairie View sealed the victory with a 6-0 run.
Iola is now 2-4 on the year and 1-1 in the Pioneer League.
“We just have to learn to fight through that,” Carlson said. “We always struggle when we play Prairie View. It’s always a rough night. The effort was there but we just have to finish what we started.”
The effort was certainly there for Iola’s defense. Carlson added that if her team is capable of holding a team to just 15 points in the first half, it should be more than capable of earning a victory. Although the Buffalos were able to break through the Fillies’ defense in the final two minutes, Iola proved it has the talent to compete even when the offense struggles to make shots.
“We’re just going to get better over Christmas,” Carlson said. “These are pretty disciplined girls. They’re pretty focused on what we’re doing. They need some rest but they’ll come back ready to go.”
Both the Mustangs and Fillies return to the court on Jan. 5 when they travel to face Anderson County.
BOX SCORE
(MUSTANGS)
Iola (10/1-4-14-27) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Zimmerman 1-0-0-2, Cooper 1/1-0-2-5, Fawson 4-2-2-10, Plumlee 0-2-2-2, Regehr 0-0-1-0, Taylor 1-0-2-2, Holloway 1-0-3-2, Ingle 1-0-1-2, Sigg 1-0-1-2.
Prairie View (9/6-3-10-39) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Phelps 5/1-2-2-15, Hoover 0/3-0-3-9, Bowman 2/2-1-1-11, Northern 1-0-0-2, Peine 1-0-2-2, McKinley 0-0-2-0.
BOX SCORE
(FILLIES)
Iola (10/3-5-22-34) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Wade 2/1-3-3-10, Riley 0-0-2-0, Murry 0-1-3-1, Bannister 0-0-2-0, Shields 2/1-0-5-7, Platt 0/1-0-1-3, Macha 6-1-3-13, Sutterby 0-0-3-0.
Prairie View (9/2-18-42) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Kirkpatrick 3-0-1-6, Konitizer 2-4-3-8, Brown 0-0-4-0, Kemper 0-2-1-2, Boone 1/1-6-0-11, Davis 3/1-6-2-15.
