Fillies net 400th win for Carlson

OSAWATOMIE — Defense wins games.
Iola High Fillies’ head coach Becky Carlson is a firm believer in playing solid defense. Sometimes the offense is hard to come by but defense should be played well no matter what.
The Fillies stayed close to host Osawatomie High’s Lady Trojans with their defense. When shots weren’t falling in the first half, the Fillies relied on their defense.
And at the end, the offense came and the defense delivered the victory. The Fillies won their 2010-2011 season opener 39-33 at Osawatomie Friday.
Carlson really didn’t want to talk about the milestone she reached as a head coach the Fillies victory. It marked her 400th career coaching win.
 It was, as it always is with Carlson, about the players.
“All I — all we wanted was to win the game,” Carlson said. “This is a great way to start the season. We won the game and did it fighting through some adversity.”
The Fillies trailed a lot of the first half. Osawatomie’s Rebecca Fisher scored 10 of her game-high 18 points in the third quarter. Fisher had four of the Lady Trojans’ six three-point field goals of the game.
She nailed a trey with 3:50 left in the third period to put her team up 22-18. Iola’s Kelsey Larson answered with a three-pointer of her own. Fisher rifled in another trey to put Osawatomie up 25-21.
Iola buckled down as Kendra Taiclet hit a jumper then the Fillies got a turnover. Kayla Callahan tied the score with a drive under the basket.
Tess Newport sank one of two free throws at Osawatomie’s end. Callahan did the same for Iola.
The Fillies took the lead for good on a putback at the third-quarter buzzer by Kirstin McGuffin. Another follow shot by Callahan at the 7:05 mark of the fourth period had Iola up 30-26.
Fisher hit another three to close the gap to one.
Larson dropped in two free throws then scored a basket with 3:28 pushing Iola’s lead to 34-29.
“I knew about (Fisher) and how well she could shoot but I didn’t know No. 21 (Courtney Kilbourn) could shoot like that,” Carlson said.
Kilbourn had a three early in the game but connected from the outside with 3:08 left in the game. The way the Lady Trojans shot the three the Fillies had to control the basketball.
Iola came out of a timeout and ran time off the clock but turned the ball over. Larson came up with a steal and McGuffin scored at the 1:19 mark.
McGuffin made the next steal for the Fillies. Toni Taylor sank free throws at the end to help the Fillies seal the win.
“We just didn’t finish shots in the first half. We didn’t play that bad defensively. We did a great job controlling No. 12 (Taylor Soucie) inside,” Carlson said.
Soucie is a 6-foot sophomore who averaged 10 rebounds a game last year. “She didn’t get that many tonight. Kirstin and Kayla and the rest did a good job inside limiting her positioning,” Carlson said.
It was Soucie’s lob from long range that put Osawatomie up 9-6 at the end of the first quarter. Fisher and Taiclet traded threes midway through the second quarter.
McGuffin, who had six points and nine rebounds, scored to make it 12-11 with 2:10 left. Kilbourn nailed a three-pointer. But Iola had the final three points of the half.
Wilson hit a jump shot then Larson hit one of two free throws with 48 seconds on the clock. Iola’s defense created a turnover and the Fillies took a final shot with three seconds but missed.
Osawatomie led 15-14 at intermission. Taylor opened the second half with a basket for Iola then Fisher took over for awhile.
“Our hustle won this game. We just kept pounding away and did a great job on the boards. Their shots didn’t fall late,” Carlson said. “We always play hard and the girls did not allow the game to get away from them when we were struggling offensively.”
As time wound down, the posters of “Carlson’s win count” and “400 wins” came out from the IHS student crowd and fans. Carlson’s count stands at 400 wins, 195 losses.
Iola shot 33 percent from the field, hitting 16 of 48 attempts. The Fillies were 5 of 8 at the free-throw line while the Lady Trojans were 5 of 6.
Carlson said she was pleased with the play of Wilson and Kelsey Adams, who came off the bench for Iola.
Larson led the Fillies with10 points and five rebounds. Taiclet had three assists and Wilson had three steals. Callahan pulled down eight rebounds and tossed in nine points.
The varsity Fillies are in the Anderson County High preseason tournament Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. They play Louisburg on Tuesday then Burlington on Thursday in pool play.
Osawatomie rallied to win the junior varsity game 33-26. Iola got 11 points from Lisa McFadden and eight from Adams.
The Iola freshman captured a 22-20 win. Emma Sigg fired in 12 points to lead the Fillies.
Iola (6-8-14-11—39) (FG/3-pt): Larson 2/1-3-3-10, Taiclet 2/1-0-2-7, Taylor 1-1-0-3, Wilson 2-0-0-4, Callahan 4-1-3-9, McGuffin 3-0-2-6. TOTALS: 14/2-5-10-39.
Osawatomie (9-6-11-7—33) (FG/3-pt): Fisher 2/4-2-4-18, Wright 0-0-2-0, Newport 0-1-1-1, Soucie 0/1-0-3-3, Whitley 1-0-0-2, Kilbourn 2/1-2-1-9. TOTALS: 5/6-5-11-33.