Iola High’s girls found their offensive groove on occasion Friday.
Their defense, meanwhile, was stout from start to finish.
The Fillies’ 46-33 win over visiting Chanute — Iola’s second straight — give head coach Becky Carlson plenty of reasons to smile.
“Our offense was not great,” Carlson said, “but defensively we did a good job.”
While Iola led from start to finish, even scoring the game’s first 11 points, a few key moments sealed the win.
Chanute opened the second half with seven straight points to cut Iola’s 11-point halftime margin to 24-19.
But Toni Macha connected from the elbow and Madisyn Holloway drained a 3-pointer midway through the period to re-establish a 10 point lead, 29-19.
Chanute’s Baylee Dillman and Tori Busse responded with consecutive buckets, and an Iola turnover gave possession back to Chanute.
A potential 3-pointer was swatted out of the air by Riley Murry.
The teams traded missed free throws on their next possessions, before Macha found Della Lohman open in the blocks for a layup and a 31-23 lead.
Another pair of missed Chanute charities led to a mad scramble at the end of the period.
Murry grabbed the ball and dropped in a layup at the buzzer, and the lead was back at 10, 33-23.
Macha’s baseline jumper to open the fourth pushed the lead to 35-23, and Murry’s putback opened a 38-24 margin.
Chanute had one last salvo, scoring seven straight points to cut the gap to 38-31.
But Iola’s Sydney Wade, who missed the prior three games with an ankle injury, found nothing but nylon from 3-point range at the 1:55 mark.
The lead was back at double digits for good. Murry scored again with 1:25 left and Chloe Gardner’s free throw with 45 seconds remaining capped Iola’s scoring.
