Mustangs struggle in three of four quarters in loss

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Sports

January 31, 2018 - 12:00 AM

It’s becoming harder and harder to explain away the Iola boys losses.
On Tuesday night, the Mustangs hosted a Santa Fe Trail team they had beaten by 14 a month and a half earlier and lost 61-46 in a game that only felt close in one quarter.
The Mustangs led by eight at halftime and seemed destined to play their best game in a month.
After a nightmare of a first quarter where all 18 of the Chargers’ points came either from a three or free throws after being fouled from behind the free point line, things seemed to click.
Offensively, Iola was sharp, scoring 19 points both inside and out, just destroying what seemed like a stout Santa Fe Trail defense.
There was no doubt in the fact that the return of senior guard Cale Barnhart from injury, even if he only played spare minutes in the second and fourth quarter, was a catalyst in the Mustangs’ superb play.
“I think just the boys seeing him out there did something,” head coach Luke Bycroft said. “Cale is a kid who doesn’t do anything flashy but he does things right. He works his tail off. If we have 15 guys who do things like him then games will be easy.
 He gave us a spark but I was afraid to leave him out there for too long.”
After trailing by six, Iola tied it up with 5:25 to play in the second quarter and took the lead on their next possession. They went into the half up eight and flying high. That’s where things fell apart. 
“We think things are easy,” Bycroft said. “When we do things right in consecutive possessions, things get easy. If we do things the right way, whether that’s rebounding or taking care of the ball or doing the small things we are good at, things become easy for us. Then we decide that we don’t have to do that stuff because it was easy for a quarter. That’s foolish and that’s when we got back to doing things like crap.”
A 23-6 third quarter saw the Mustangs slip right back into the play that has dogged the Mustangs all season. Turnovers, poor rebounding, sloppy play, bad shots. They all came out in the second half.
From there it was over and Bycroft was left once again wondering about changes in personnel as his team progresses on this season after watching his bench do some damage as the seconds ticked down.
“The guys who were on the floor at the end of the game got more tips on passes, got more offensive rebounds and challenged more defensively for 40 seconds than we did at any other point in this basketball game,” Bycroft said. “Changing X’s and O’s is not our problem right now. When we run things right, we’re good and it works. This is an issue of players doing things the right way and that’s tough to say and it’s on me to get that out of the players that are on the floor or it’s up to me to find the players that will play the way we need to. It falls on me.”
The Mustangs fall to 6-7 after the loss and it doesn’t get any easier from here.
They’ll host No. 7 in Class 4A-II Burlington. The Wildcats beat the Mustangs by eight on Dec. 12 on their home floor.
Junior Varsity and
Freshmen Results
The junior varsity boys beat Santa Fe Trail 62-55. Sophomore Cal Leonard led the way with 16 points. The freshmen boys lost their first game of the season, 60-39. The Mustangs only trailed by eight going into the fourth quarter. Dillon Bycroft had 10 points in the loss.

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