BURLINGTON — The Iola Fillies lost to the Rock Creek Mustangs by a nose Monday afternoon. The 30-28 overtime loss was the final game in a Burlington Invitational Tournament, which saw the Fillies, despite hard-fought contests throughout, reduced to last place.
Besides sharing a common horsy sobriquet, the two teams ran a similar high-low offense and scrappy man-to-man defense, and appeared for most of Monday’s game evenly matched.
But Iola head coach Becky Carlson put her finger on the problem: “We just couldn’t score.”
In fairness, neither could Rock Creek. Both squads averaged only 7 points per quarter in regulation.
The Fillies showed flashes of offensive potential in the first half: To open the second quarter, senior Ashlie Shields, after being fouled on a deadeye top-of-the-arc 3-pointer, hit her free throw to complete a four-point play; soon after, junior point guard Sydney Wade (who eventually fouled out) compiled a quick 4 points on a drive and a pair of free throws; and, with 30 seconds left in the half, junior Toni Macha drove the left-side baseline, hitting a 5-foot pull-up that sent the Fillies into the half up 17-14.
Coming out of the break, however, Iola’s shooting slipped just enough to let the Mustangs inch ahead 26-22 in the dying seconds of the third quarter.
To Carlson’s mind, the roots of the Fillies’ offensive slump in the second half were psychological, an expression of lagging morale: “Early in the game, we forced a lot of shots and then we lost our confidence in shooting. … We just have got to learn to finish our shots, because we had plenty of them. But if your shot doesn’t fall, you lose faith in it.”
Still, the Fillies charged on, evening the score at 28 at the end of the fourth quarter and sending the game into equine overtime.
But two Rock Creek free throws by freshman Laney Scott late in OT made all the difference: Mustangs over Fillies.
Iola’s Shields led all scorers on the night with 11 points. Wade, who exited the game with five fouls only seconds after scoring the tying bucket in regulation, scored 9. Macha ended the night with 6 points and junior Della Lohman scored 2.
Despite their savage luck on offense, and the bad break before the buzzer in extra minutes, Carlson’s players mustered the same grit that has marked the mostly upperclassman squad since the start of the season.
“When a game is this low scoring, every posession makes a difference. You know, we probably could have been a little more patient. But the effort was there. They hustled hard. …It hurts, you know — it hurts when you lose.”
The Fillies travel to Chanute to take on the Blue Comets in regular season action on Friday.
Rock Creek sneaks past Fillies in overtime
