Cyclones too much for Mustangs

OTTAWA — Iola High’s Mustangs closed the door on a frustrating basketball season Monday night.
The Mustangs had no answer for the fourth-ranked Ottawa High Cyclones in Kansas Class 4A Substate Basketball tournament action. The Cyclones blew past the Mustangs 74-33.
“We were timid and intimidated early in the game. Ottawa is definitely a talented team,” said Bill Peeper, who finished his first season as Mustang head coach.
“We had a good second quarter but as it has been all season, we struggled offensively. We’re executing but cannot get shots to go down for us.”
Ottawa was powered by 6-6 sophomore Semi Ojeleye with 21 points, which included two three-pointers. And doing the damage early was 6-foot sophomore guard Dallas Natt, scoring six of his 14 points in the first quarter.
The Cyclones zipped to a 6-0 lead and controlled a 23-4 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
Iola senior Charles Apt, the only senior on the Mustang squad, hit a jumper at the 5:22 mark. Junior Jerrik Sigg had a basket at the buzzer for Iola.
Iola was down 25-4 when junior Devon Conner came off the bench to hit a three-pointer. It was answered by a trey from Ojeleye, which then was countered by a trey from Iola junior Clint Heffern.
Ojeleye was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim on a failed dunk attempt. Iola’s Christian Kauth, a junior, sank both free throws to make it 36-14 with 2:46 left in the first half.
The Mustangs were down 43-18 at the break. Kauth and sophomore Levi Ashmore had back-to-back baskets early in the third quarter for Iola.
Iola didn’t put any more points up until junior Braden Larson had a three-point play at the 38.6-second mark. Heffern scored at the buzzer and Iola trailed by 31 points, 58-27.
The fourth quarter was played under a running clock. Ottawa outscored Iola 17-6 in those final eight minutes.
The Mustangs ended the 2010-2011 season at 1-20.
“We did make progress this year. It’s not as much as we wanted but we’re going to have to wait on it a bit longer,” Peeper said.
“It is what it is and we just have to learn from this season and work to make it into what we want to be.”
In the final game of the season, Heffern paced the Mustangs with nine points, seven rebounds and four assists. Apt had two points and five rebounds in his last game for Iola High.
Kauth, who was 4-for-4 at the free-throw line, had six points. Iola was 6 of 7 at the line.
“Clint was everywhere, scrapping for the ball. We had seven rebounds in the first half and Clint had five of those,” Peeper said.
“Charles is commended for hanging in there in a 1-20 season with a new coach. He has been a good leader and a hard worker. I couldn’t have asked for a better senior to have as a new coach.”
In the other opening round games of the 4A substate, which is being hosted by Paola High School, Fort Scott beat Louisburg 43-40, Osawatomie rolled over Prairie View 82-33 and Paola downed Anderson County 62-27.
The four winning teams from Monday night’s games play in semifinal action Thursday at Paola. The championship game is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Paola.
Iola (4-14-9-6—33) (FG/3-pt): Heffern 3/1-0-0-9, Ashmore 1/1-0-0-5, Conner 0/1-0-0-3, J. Latta 0-0-2-0, Sigg 1-0-2-2, Larson 2-1-1-5, C. Kauth 1-4-2-6, Apt 1-0-1-2, Grover 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 9/3-6-8-33.
Ottawa (23-20-15-17—74) (FG/3-pt): Maxwell 1/1-0-0-5, Boeh 1-0-0-2, Ad. Hasty 1/1-0-1-5, Shaffer 3-2-2-8, Al. Hasty 2/1-0-1-7, Goedert 2-0-3-4, Natt 6-2-0-14, Blaue 0-0-1-0, Peters 1-0-0-2, Peoples 3-0-0-6, Ojeleye 7/2-1-1-21. TOTALS: 27/5-5-9-74.