OSAGE CITY — The Iola Mustangs’ season came to an end Thursday following a 57-53 overtime loss to the Osage City Indians.
After scoring off a pair of free throws in the overtime, the Indians took advantage of not having a shot clock. They chose to play stall-ball, forcing Iola to foul and adding two more scores from the free-throw line to secure the victory.
“Not having a shot clock changed the game a lot, especially in overtime,” Iola coach Luke Bycroft said. “They won the tip and we were on our heels the rest of the way. No shot clock — hopefully we’re going to get that remedied soon so we can have a shot clock all of the time.”
Following a blowout loss to the Indians last November, the Mustangs experienced early deja vu in the first quarter. They were limited to six points on a pair of field goals from junior forward Keegan Hill and senior forward Brennen Coffield, portending a long night.
But the Mustangs woke up.
“We started attacking and dumping with some movement, then it opened everything up,” Bycroft said. “We got a little impatient at times and took shots we didn’t have to take, but those were good shots. We needed to run the same action in the fourth quarter, but we got a little stagnant offensively.”
As Iola’s defense gained footing, sophomore forward Mosiah Fawson kick-started a second-quarter run with a successful free-throw, followed by a 3-pointer and a putback.
A 3-pointer by junior Austin Crooks and a jumper by senior guard Nick Bauer continued shifting the momentum. A close-range shot by sophomore forward Reed Clift off a Crooks steal capped off the second quarter as Iola took a 26-17 lead into halftime.
Junior forward Keegan Hill exploded in the third quarter, scoring nine of his team-leading 15 points on a 3-pointer and a trio of close-range shots.
Three-pointers by Clift and Crooks and a Fawson field goal helped give Iola a 10-point cushion by the fourth quarter.
But then things took a turn.
“We kept trying to get cheap steals instead of playing the defense that got us the lead,” Bycroft said. “We started overpursuing, rotating too far and trying to get into passing lanes — terrible things. We needed one more stop or one more rebound or one more shot to fall.”
Osage City forced overtime after going on a 20-10 run in the fourth quarter with the teams tied at 53-53.
Iola never scored again.
The Indians advanced to face Burlington in the second round of substate while the Mustangs ended their season with an 11-12 record.
“We’ve grown a lot this season,” Bycroft said. “Preparing for this I watched our first game against them (Osage) again. It was night and day how far we’ve come and you forget that. You usually don’t watch those early season games. I feel good about how far we came, but I don’t feel good about how it ended.”
Bauer ended the night with nine assists and four steals. Crooks scored 11 and had a team-leading eight rebounds. Hill had seven rebounds and three steals.
Next season, Iola looks to return all but two starters — Bauer and Coffield. Although excited to bring back nearly his entire roster, Coach Bycroft said filling the void left by Bauer and Coffield will not be easy.
“It’s hard to think about next year when you think about how bad those guys are hurting,” Bycroft said. “They invested so much into this program over the last four years. They are two of our hardest working guys.”
