Trojans too much for Fillies

GIRARD — The Girard High Trojans proved to be most inhospitable hosts Friday for Iola High’s Fillies.
The Trojans used a stifling press to repeatedly disrupt Iola’s offense, particularly in the second and third quarters, of the season-opener for both teams.
The Trojans turned on the press in the second quarter, outscoring Iola 21-5 in the period to lead 32-12 at the break. The run continued after intermission, with Girard outscoring the Fillies 14-5.
The Trojans took their 46-17 lead and coasted from there in a 62-23 win.
“Their press hurt us, and my gosh, their 3-point shooting tonight was tremendous,” Fillies head coach Becky Carlson said. “They did a good job of preventing us from finding our offense.”
But with a young squad featuring only two seniors, Carlson found several potential building blocks to future success.
“We’ve got a lot of team speed,” she said. “We just need to figure out how to put something together to exploit that.
“And the girls never hung their heads,” Carlson continued. “They continued to fight hard up until the end.”
Iola played evenly with Girard through much of the first quarter. Addie Haar connected on a three-point play to put Iola up 3-1 before the Trojans rattled off six consecutive points. The string was broken by a pair of free throws by Emery Driskel, followed by another Haar bucket to tie the score at 7-7.
But a 3-pointer by Girard’s Hadyn Herlocker gave the Trojans a 10-7 lead, triggering the second-quarter outburst.
Iola committed 22 turnovers on the night, many coming in the second period. The Fillies connected on only a single field goal in the quarter, a bucket by Driskel with about 5 minutes left in the half.
Haar scored nine points and pulled in seven rebounds to lead Iola. Driskel added five rebounds and two assists. Haar, Driskel and Emma Sigg each had two steals.
Herlocker was a monster for Girard, pouring in 25 points. Carly Heatherly added 15.
Iola fell in junior varsity action 33-21. Jo Lohman paced the Fillies JV with eight points, followed by Driskel with four. Shelby Reno, Ashlie Shields and Endicott scored two points each. Sigg had a point.
Girard won the freshman contest 50-40. Individual statistics for Iola were unavailable.
Iola (7-5-5-6—23)
Girard (11-21-14-16—63)
Iola (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Shay 0-0-1-0, Endicott 0-1-4-1, Haar 3-3-0-9, Driskel 1-2-3-4, Piazza 0-0-1-0, Moore 0/1-0-1-3, Lohman 1-0-3-2, Sigg 1-2-0-4.
Girard: Zimmerman 0-1-1-1, Ivey 3-0-1-6, Johnson 1-1-3-3, McLeod 3-0-3-6, Schroeder 0-0-2-0, Herlocker 4/4-3-2-25, Jones 1-0-0-2, Heatherly 0/5-0-2-15, Leslie 1-0-1-2, M. Herlocker 1-0-3-2. TOTALS: 14/9-7-18-63.