When the Mustangs look good, they look really good. Nearly unstoppable.
Such was the case the majority of Monday’s opening round game of the Ike Cearfoss Preseason tournament versus host Central Heights and again through the first half of the semi-final round versus league-foe Osawatomie on their way to a 60-43 win on Thursday.
The Mustangs outscored the Trojans 36-14 in the first half due in no small part to 14 first-half points for senior Ethan Holloway — 12 of those coming in the first quarter.
“It’s vital for us to get out to a good start,” head coach Luke Bycroft said. “We have a tendency to get into foul trouble. Our bigs and guards are aggressive defenders and sometimes too aggressive so building a lead is important because we’re going to have times where we’re going to have quite a few bench players on the court.”
Holloway had 21 points total. Aside from leading the way in points, Holloway stood out for other reasons.
“For the most part tonight he was finding good shots and making good shots,” Bycroft said. “But what I was really impressed with was that there’s a little bit of a rivalry with this group, especially with (Holloway) and their No. 15 ( senior forward Noah Cole). So to see Ethan maintain his composure and remain physical even when he didn’t get his shot to fall or didn’t get a call that he thought he should’ve got is great. Sometimes the rivalry games are the hard ones to keep doing things the right way because you get so amped up.”
However, Osawatomie did get to Iola some.
Cole and the Trojans came roaring out of the half, scoring eight straight points, cutting Iola’s lead to 12.
“To be honest I think we were relaxed in the second half,” Bycroft said. “Things got easy for us late in the first and I think sometimes that’s natural to relax and let down a little bit but I told them that we couldn’t do that but I think we came out a little flat. Osawatomie fought though, they wouldn’t give up.”
Iola came back alive and pushed the lead back to 15 going into the third quarter and went nearly point-for-point in the fourth quarter to keep Osawatomie from coming any closer.
“In the very first game of the season we talked about being ‘Brothers in Adversity’,” Bycroft said. “It’s on our shirt. A brother has a common purpose and a common goal and so when we got in the middle of that I told them that this is the adversity. We weren’t getting every call, they were fouling us, we weren’t handling the ball cleanly but we have to weather the storm and get back to doing what we do right. We settled down though so that’s what I’m proud of.”
Iola will return to Central Heights on Saturday to face another Pioneer League rival, Santa Fe Trail, in the championship game. Tip-off will be at 7 p.m.
Iola (16-20-8-16—60) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Holloway 21 8/0-5-2-21, Bycroft 0/1-5-2-8, Ashmore 2/0-0-1-6, Cokely 2/0-2-0-6, Sigg 2/0-1-3-5, Vink 1/0-2-1-4, Miller 1/0-1-1-3, Rogers 1/0-0-2-2, Barnhart 1/0-0-1-2, Bruner 0/0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 16/3-19-18-60.
Osawatomie (6-8-15-14—43) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Cole 5/1-1-4-14, Smith 2/1-2-4-9, King 3/0-1-1-7, Bauman 1/0-2-3-4, Bradley 2/0-1-4-4, Cole 1/0-0-3-2, Stults 1/0-0-3-2, Lopez 0/0-1-0-1, Joeckel 0/0-03-0. TOTALS: 15/2-7-25-43.
PICTURE — Senior forward Ethan Holloway bangs down low against an Osawatomie defender in the Mustangs’ 60-43 win on Thursday. REGISTER/TIMOTHY EVERSON
