A week ago, Iola coach Jay Applegate was forced to change his lineup with senior guard Isaiah Fawson missing a Friday tilt against Anderson County. Applegate inserted senior Chase Regehr into the starting lineup and as the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention.”
Though the Mustangs lost to Anderson County, Applegate has stuck with Regehr in the starting lineup and the results have been terrific with two straight victories this week including Thursday’s 64-50 upset over league-leading Wellsville.
“It is extremely satisfying,” Fawson said. “They are the big dogs in the league and we have never beaten them before, so to beat them like this, in a blowout game, feels great.”
Having Regehr start allows Fawson to come off the bench and provide an instant-offense component that has been missing from the bench unit all season.
For the second-straight game, Fawson led the team in scoring. He dropped 18 points against the Eagles.
The other by-product of the change is that without Fawson — the top perimeter scoring threat — on the floor it forces Iola to go inside early in the game and establish junior post players Ethan Holloway and Evan Sigg quickly, which is something Applegate has been preaching all season.
“Our game plan is always to get the ball inside,” Applegate said. “That is were we draw fouls and we think we have a pretty good inside game.”
For Fawson, it helps having the inside going before he even steps on the floor, because with teams focused on the paint, it opens up his shot.
“They had nobody who could guard (Holloway) so we pounded it inside and when they doubled him, it would open up Joey (Zimmerman) or Ben (Cooper) for the kick-out,” Fawson said.
It was Holloway who got going in the first half against Wellsville’s under-sized front line. The 6-7 forward had 10 first half points including a pair of free throws to end the half and give Iola a 30-22 lead.
“Our offense ran extremely well and it all started out because we got the ball inside,” Holloway said.
The third quarter has presented problems for the Mustangs all season, but on Thursday, they used it to open the game up.
Baskets from Regehr, Zimmerman — a three — and Cooper to go with a Evan Sigg foul shot allowed the lead to balloon to 38-22 in the opening minutes of the second half.
Wellsville made a slight run to get back into it, but Iola carried a 45-33 lead into the fourth quarter.
Fawson opened the final eight minutes with a three.
Wellsville answered with a three of its own, but Fawson responded right back with an ‘and-one’ play.
