OSAWATOMIE No part of Friday nights game at Osawatomie was pretty for the Iolas boys, including the result.
The Mustangs (3-4) dropped their fourth game of the season in dramatic fashion, losing to the Trojans by a point, 47-46.
If you were one for moral victories youd find one in the fact that the Mustangs went into the fourth quarter trailing by 12 and heading into the final five minutes of the game down 13 and still managed to be fighting and scraping up until the final buzzer.
It wasnt always an exciting game though.
Both teams scored just six in the first quarter and eight in the second to be tied at 14 heading into halftime.
Shots werent falling for Iola and its ball movement struggled. The Mustangs had just two assists during the first three quarters of the game. Add in the fact that they turned the ball over 22 times and one would get a clearer picture of why the Mustangs first half output would be disappointing to score in just one quarter.
The one thing they did have to their advantage was rebounding and that carried them through and kept them around throughout the entire game.
Our defense wasnt as good as it looked, Bycroft said. We didnt rotate as well as I wouldve liked and we gave up some easy ones. But what made it look so good was our rebounding. Throughout most of the game, we blocked out and really did a good job keeping them off of the offensive glass.
The game really started to turn in the second half. The Mustangs still werent scoring consistently and Osawatomie managed to open up the court a little bit with some threes that pushed the Trojans ahead.
Defensively things had gotten really physical. Bodies were flying and frustrations were rising up until the point when senior Hunter Preston was called for a technical with 1:52 to play in the third quarter. Osawatomie pushed its lead to double digits just a minute later.
The Mustangs got back withiin single digits and started to see things shift their way when a made and-one by senior Derek Bycroft was called off for traveling with just seconds left in the quarter leading to the Trojans making a half quarter buzzer beater to push the lead back up to 12 heading into the fourth quarter.
For the first couple minutes nothing changed and it seemed Osawatime was going to ride out a double-digit winner but with five minutes left, junior Cal Leonard hit back-to-back threes and went 1-2 from the free throw line to bring things within six.
Iolas defense picked up and switched into a full court press and that forced the Trojans into several late game turnovers that allowed the Mustangs to get closer and closer.
We extended our defense and it picked our energy up, Bycroft said. Its so frustrating because I want us to play with that type of energy throughout the whole game no matter what were running defensively. Then they were pretty sloppy with the ball and that allowed us to get back in it because we were jumping passes and attacking the basket. When we do that, good things happen.
It was Derek Bycroft who pushed the Mustangs back into the lead on a stolen inbounds pass.
It was good to see the tenacity to dig in and get back in it, Bycroft said. I just told them that they couldnt look at the scoreboard. Just focus on the next possession and we did that. If we take that mentality and us it from the start of the game then were a completely different team.
The Trojans got fouled taking the ball back up the court with 20.6 second left and made both free throw to retake the lead. Once again, it was Bycroft who found the spacing around the basket to jump Iola back ahead of Osawatomie with 10 seconds left.
