Iola High’s Fillies lived to play another day of basketball. With its 36-33 win over Anderson County on Friday in the Class 4A-II Sub-State Bracket, Iola is one game away from making it to the state tournament. Iola 36, Anderson County 33
The Fillies will play Girard — who beat Prairie View earlier on Friday — at 6 p.m. tonight to earn a trip to the Class 4A-II State Tournament.
It wasn’t an easy win for the Fillies against the Lady Bulldogs.
“We fouled too much,” coach Becky Carlson said. “We put them on the line and it stopped the clock. But, we did a good job of coming back and made some adjustments at halftime that seemed to really hurt them.”
Iola led 6-3 after the first quarter. Emma Piazza accounted for all of Iola’s points thanks to two 3-pointers.
Things picked up in the second quarter, but not for Iola. Paige Scheckel made a layup to give the Lady Bulldogs its first lead of the game at 7-6 with five minutes left in the half. Iola’s Sydney Wade helped facilitate Iola’s offense and found Toni Macha underneath the basket. The Fillies took a 10-9 lead with three minutes left.
Anderson County ended up leading 13-10 at the half. Scheckel drove through the lane to extend the Lady Bulldogs lead to three-points before the end of the half.
In the third quarter, Iola’s Addie Haar gave the team a lead that it was able to hang on too — but, barely. Haar it two free throws to give the Fillies a 17-16 lead with 3:40 left in the third quarter. That’s when Mikaela Platt got the hot hand. She scored on a step-up jumper to give the Fillies a 19-16 lead with three minutes left. After a quick Anderson County bucket, Platt gave Iola some breathing room with a clutch 3-pointer. Iola led 22-18 with 1:50 left.
From that point on Iola went on a 8-1 run that went into the fourth quarter and gave Iola its largest lead of the game at 30-19 with 6:50 left. Lexie Long came up big with four straight free throws to begin the quarter.
The Lady Bulldogs weren’t out of it yet. After getting to the line, the score was 31-27 in favor of the Fillies with 2:40 left to play. Wade changed that with layup that floated into the hoop. Jo Lohman followed by hitting one of two free throws and Iola suddenly had a 34-27 lead with 1:50 left.
Anderson County wouldn’t go away, even though neither team didn’t score for almost a full minute. However, the Lady Bulldogs were the team to end the drought. Anderson County’s no. 3 Macie Rockers made a three with 52 seconds left.
Iola’s Lohman made the seemed to ice the game with two made free throws with 29 seconds left in the game. Iola was up 36-30. Scheckel thought otherwise.
After Iola missed free throws with about 10 seconds left, Scheckel stormed up the court and nailed a 3-pointer. She also happened to be fouled on the play and had a chance at four points in one possession and 2.6 seconds left on the clock.
Scheckel shot, the ball hit the rim and Emery Driskel came down with the big rebound that sealed the win to send Iola to the championship tonight.
When Scheckel’s 3-pointer did go in, all coach Carlson and everyone watching could do was hold their breath.
“I was like ‘what the heck,’ but at least it didn’t hurt us,” Carlson said. “We will learn from that.”
Carlson agreed that even though it was a close game, the Fillies can use this as motivation when they play against Girard tonight.
“I’m really proud of how they came back there. Mikaela Platt had a really good second half,” Carlson said. “Everyone that came in did. Lexie (Long) made two big free throws at the end. It was a good team effort.”
The Fillies had eight players score. Piazza led the team with 11 points. Besides the two 3-pointers she hit in the first quarter, she also made one to begin the third quarter.
Girard beat Prairie View 47-31, but didn’t open up the lead until the second half.
“I thought Prairie View did a good job, but then quit making their baskets,” Carlson said. “I think our style hurts (Girard).”
Iola (6-4-16-10—36) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Wade 1-0-5-2, Long 0-4-0-4, Moore 0-0-1-0, Piazza 1/3-2-1-11, Lohman 1-5-3-7, Shields 0-0-1-0, Haar 0-3-0-3, Platt 1/1-0-4-5, Driskel 1-0-4-2, Macha 1-0-2-2
Anderson County (3-10-6-14) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Rockers 1/1-0-4-5, Mad. Ratliff 1-1-1-3, McCullough 0-3-5-3, Fritz 0-0-1-0, May. Ratliff 1-0-5-2, Scheckel 5/1-6-3-19, Lickteig 0-1-2-2
Fillies one step away from state
