OSAWATOMIE — Iola High School’s boys are on a hot streak. The Mustangs extended a two-game winning streak on Tuesday, defeating Osawatomie 61-25.
Tyler Boeken led the way with 22 points and seven boards.
Iola’s defense was fierce and the shooters white-hot early while building a mammoth lead. It all started within the first 15 seconds of the game when Eli Adams drained a three for the Mustangs. From there, Iola dominated, scoring at will for much of the first half. Osawatomie finally joined the Mustangs on the scoreboard early in the second quarter.
Late in the half, the Iola lead ballooned to 30 points.
Iola led 42-8 at the break.
The Mustangs continued to dominate the Trojans throughout the second half. Osawatomie looked defeated in the third quarter but tried to mount a charge, scoring here and there but the Trojan defense wasn’t able to contain Iola. Ten Mustangs scored, while a handful of junior varsity players got valuable minutes. Iola had 27 total rebounds and worked on controlling the ball, turning it over only seven times. Boeken hit 8-9 free throws. Cooper Riley hit 3-4.
“What I’m most proud of is that we didn’t overlook them (Osawatomie),” said Iola head coach Luke Bycroft. “I thought because we have been playing better and beat them by almost 30 last time that there was a danger we could overlook them. We were moving and active defensively. We stopped the ball when they went to the hoop. There are things we can work on but we played good defense and we were active.”
Iola seems to be peaking at the right time, just before the postseason begins. The Mustangs are 5-13 and are back in action Tuesday on senior night against Wellsville.
Iola’s freshmen team won 47-26. Grady Dougherty led the way with 28 points. Lucas Maier had six. Kyser Nemecek had five. Cole Moyer had three. Jeremy Adair had two. Ethan Harris, Trevor Tatman and Ben Kerr had one.
IOLA ( 17-25-11-8—61) Weide 4-1-1-9 Adams 3/1-0-0-7 Fager 2-0-1-4 Wanker 1-0-1-2 Rutoh 0-1-0-1 Carson 2/2-0-1-6 Riley 1-3-2-5 Leonard 1-0-1-2 Boeken 7-8-0-22 G. Skahan 1-0-0-2 TOTALS: 21/3- 16-8-61
OSAWATOMIE (0-11-10-4—25) Hodgson 0-2-0-2 Fennel 2-0-3-2 Scales 4/3-0-3-11 Peterson 2-0-2-4 Homrighausen 1-0-1-2 Fanning 1-0-5-2 TOTALS: 10/3-2-17-25
