RICHMOND — The Iola Mustangs saw their first taste of state tournament talent while falling to the Osage City Lady Indians 54-24 in the opening round of the Ike Cearfoss Basketball Tournament.
Limited to just 7 points in the first half, Tuesday’s go-round with the perennial powerhouse Lady Indians may have provided Iola with a few lessons as well as a few positive takeaways from the contest.
“They had four girls hit 3-pointers. That’s hard to defend,” Iola coach Emily Sigg said. “They had 10 treys and a lot of those were contested. I’m proud of our girls. We didn’t win the game, but we got better from Friday. That’s always our goal — just get a little bit better.”
After going into halftime down 28-7, the Mustangs nearly doubled their first-half production in the third quarter with a trio of buckets by junior guard Brooklyn Holloway.
Holloway ended the contest tied with freshman guard Haidyn Desmarteau for the team lead in scoring with 7 points each. Zoie Hesse, junior forward, had 5 points and freshman guard Kinzley Fountain scored 4.
Although taking the loss, Sigg believes experience with a state-tournament caliber team like Osage City improves her team. By seeing how they play and react to certain situations, the Mustangs can better contextualize lessons learned in practice.
“It’s good to see a team that has a good flow. Osage City plays well with each other,” Sigg said. “If we keep it up, and play in the summer we can have that same ease on offense. They have that ease because they’re comfortable playing with each other.”
With the loss, the Mustangs fell to 0-2.
They face host Central Heights Lady Vikings Thursday. Depending on the outcome, Iola will either play for fifth place or seventh place Friday.
“We want to celebrate little wins this year and those wins could be big offensive plays or big defensive stops,” Sigg said. “It’s little wins, and getting better every game this year. That’s our goal.”
