There are some nights when shots don’t fall.
As unfair or nebulous of an idea as that is, it happens. For Iola, it happened Monday night in its 53-49 loss to Girard.
The Mustangs had been good up until the second half, leading by six against the ninth-ranked Trojans headed into the half. Probably 50 or more shots fell during their halftime warmups before someone put a lid on the basket.
Including the final two shots of the first half, the Trojans slowly mounted an 18-0 run throughout the third quarter as shot-after-shot-after-shot rimmed in and out for Iola.
“Offensively they went to a junk defense and that made us have to work for our points,” head coach Luke Bycroft said. “It made us get stagnant but we were still able to find some good shots. We just couldn’t hit any of them. We had some good looks and we didn’t make them. The only thing I was disappointed in was when we weren’t able to have good offense, we stopped running good defense which is what we hang our hat on.”
When the third quarter was all said and done, the Mustangs trailed by eight with just a quarter to make up ground.
Timely three-point shooting by Blake Ashmore, Cal Leonard and Cale Barnhart aided in the comeback as the Mustang offense once again found its mojo. Iola found itself down by as little as two points but the six of 10 free throws that Girard hit down the stretch would be just enough to send Iola into the winter break with a loss.
“I’m proud of them for being able to dig themselves out of a hole,” Bycroft said. “We competed. We had a little letdown but we came back and dug our way out of that hole that we created with smart effort. It would’ve been easy to fold it up after that third quarter but that’s not the kind of character that these boys have.”
Junior Caleb Muia led Girard with 18 points coming off of a 31-point performance versus Liberal (Mo.).
The Mustangs continue to struggle to get the ball to their very talented senior bigs on the offensive end. Senior Evan Sigg led all scorers with eight points while Ethan Holloway scored eight.
In games where Iola has been successful, both players were much more prolific shooting the basketball and Bycroft believes that it’s an adjustment that other teams have glommed onto that the Mustangs haven’t been able to fully crack yet that’s led to that struggle.
“In these games, they’re not even extending their zone anymore,” Bycroft said. “They pack it in and just dare our guards to beat them with a jump shot or an attack. We’ve been working on attacking because sometimes those jump shots aren’t going to fall but right now we’re not great at it. So right now if we’re hitting shots, we’re okay but if not, we’re in trouble and that’s what happened in the third quarter.”
For now, the Mustangs have a very long three weeks and three days to stew on this loss before they take the court again versus Osawatomie. For Bycroft, that time could prove to be very valuable if his team commits themselves fixing these early mistakes that have led to their two losses by eight and four points respectively.
“I’m not okay with losing,” Bycroft said. “But what I am okay with is learning. It’s easy to say but harder to do. As long as we learn from it, we can use it and we have to and if we don’t we can’t set out to accomplish our goals. This is still a team that will compete for a league championship, we’re going to compete to win a sub-state championship and then we’re going to compete to win a state championship but this has to be a learning opportunity and an opportunity to get better.”
The loss drops the Mustangs to 4-2 and 1-2 in Pioneer League play.
BOX SCORES
Iola (14-15-0-20—49) (2pt/3pt-FT-F-TP) Sigg 6/0-0-2-12, Ashmore 0/3-0-0-9, Bycroft 1/1-3-3-8, Holloway 4/0-0-1-8, Rogers 2/0-0-1-4, Leonard 0/1-0-2-3, Barnhart 0/1-0-1-3, Vink 1/0-0-1-2. Regehr 0/0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 14/6-3-14-49.
Girard (12-11-14-16—53) (2pt/3pt-FT-F-TP) Muia 8/0-2-2-18, Troike 5/0-3-0-13, Goff 2/1-4-1-11, Worrell 5/0-1-2-11, Henderson 0/0-0-1-0. TOTALS 20/1-10-10-53.
JV AND FRESHMEN RESULTS
The Mustang junior varsity won 38-33 led by freshman Hunter Preston who had nine points. The freshman 66-42 led by 12 points for Landon Carson.
PHOTO: Dereck Bycroft, junior point guard, drives to the hoop against two Girard defenders in Monday’s home loss to the Trojans. REGISTER/TIMOTHY EVERSON
