Mustangs unable to sneak past Wellsville

WELLSVILLE — It was another loss for Iola High’s Mustangs against Wellsville, but not because of a lack of effort. The Mustangs fell to the Eagles 58-39 on Tuesday.
“It’s been a long year,” coach Bill Peeper said. “We keep seeing the potential that we have. We played a solid game against these guys.”
The last time the teams met, it wasn’t pretty. Iola struggled to gain any offensive momentum and couldn’t keep up with the Eagles’ starters, who were pulled after the first half. On Jan. 16, the Eagles won 63-32.
On Tuesday, their starters were forced to remain in the entire game.
“Coaches have always said they look smarter when shots go in. We found good shots. We got to the line a lot of times. We just couldn’t make it happen,” Peeper said. “Even at halftime, we were down 16. We’ve done a lot of positive things. We played defense very well. We haven’t rebounded well, or knocked down shots. When we played them the first time, I think we were down 30 at halftime. We have it in us.”
The first quarter wasn’t the start that either team was looking for.
Iola held the Eagles to 12 points, but made only one basket. Brett Taylor cut in for a layup with three minutes left in the quarter. Really, Iola looked as if they would be down 9-2 after the first, but Wellsville’s Cole Silsby hit a 3-pointer as time expired.
Things started to look even more worrisome for Iola, going into halftime down 27-11. The Wellsville offense was starting to hit its stride. Kaden Macha led the Mustangs with four points in the second quarter.
Iola played the Eagles even, 14-14, in the third quarter. Overall, the Mustangs lost the second half 31-29. Kohl Endicott and Shane Walden each had a 3-pointer. Adam Peterson scored all six of his points in the second half.
“We have it in us, but oftentimes, we don’t believe we have it in us.  We also don’t handle adversity well,” Peeper said. “Individually and as a group, we just struggle to deal with things. When things get difficult, we have a hard time responding.”
To Wellsville’s credit, Peeper agreed that they’re a deep team.
“They’re a solid bunch. They’re well-rounded. They’ve got good guards. They shoot and defend well,” Peeper said. “They’ve got a lot of positives. There were things I felt good about, it’s just hard to win on the offensive end. We can’t get shots to fall in.”
Iola (4-15) finishes the regular season on Thursday at home against Santa Fe Trail. This will be the series clincher. Each team has already beaten one another this season.
“They’re in the same boat as we are. They look at that on the schedule as an opportunity to try and finish on a positive note,” Peeper said. “There’re no easy nights. If we can play with the effort we had against Osawatomie and tonight, we should be OK. But, we’ve got to capture that same aggressiveness and energy.”

THE JV MUSTANGS won 43-40. Joey Zimmerman scored seven points, Isaiah Fawson had eight, Braden Plumlee scored four, Chase Regehr scored two, Ben Cooper added nine, Isaac Vink had one, Brice Aiello scored eight, Ethan Holloway scored four.

THE FRESHMEN won 38-32. Caden Knavel scored eight points, Ethan Tavarez added three, Isaac Vink scored eight, Zach Cokely had 10 and Matt Komma scored nine.

Wellsville 58, Iola 39
Wellsville (12-15-14-17—58) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Brown, 0-0-3-0, Silsby 5/1-5-1-18, Gretencord 3-2-1-8, Tre. Smith 0-0-4-0, Verhulst 4-5-4-13, Klamm 6-3-3-15, Crist 0-2-0-2, Tra. Smith 0-2-0-2
Iola (2-9-14-14—39) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Cooper 1-0-3-2, Fawson 0-0-3-0, Regehr 1-0-0-2, Endicott 0/1-1-0-4, Taylor 2-0-3-4, Walden 1/2-0-2-8, Macha 3-3-4-9, Holloway 1-2-2-4, Peterson 3-0-5-6