Ball security was key at Iola Middle School on Monday as the Pony girls won just one out of four games versus Burlington.
Out of the four games, two saw the Ponies minimize their turnovers while the other two did quite the opposite.
The seventh and eighth-grade varsity fell in two blowouts with 36 turnovers between the two games while the seventh and eighth-grade junior varsity split with a win and a close loss while allowing only 16 total turnovers.
The Iola seventh grade junior varsity beat Burlington 11-8.
The Ponies jumped out to a strong 7-2 lead after the first quarter and held on until halftime with neither team scoring in the second quarter. Burlington cut the Iola lead down to one in the third and then briefly took the lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter but four straight points closed out the win for the Ponies.
Celina Caron led the way with six points on 3-10 shooting and was one of three Iola players to record a rebound. She also had a team-high three steals.
Dallyn McGraw and Macie Hoag each had two points and Louise Caron had one point.
While the seventh-grade junior varsity were the only ones to post a win, the eighth grade kept the game well within reach, falling 15-6.
The Wildcats nearly carried just a 4-0 lead into the halftime but two quick buckets with less than 20 seconds left in the half doubled that to make it 8-0.
The Burlington defense continued to hold tough through the third quarter, keeping Iola scoreless while adding two points onto their lead.
The Ponies finally woke up in the fourth quarter and outscored the Wildcats 6-5 but that would not be enough to pull out the win.
Hannah Hall had four of the Ponies’ six points and Triniti Loveall had the other two.
Loveall also had the team’s lone block and led the team in rebounds with six while Hall had five to go along with a team-high two steals.
Things went wrong early for the seventh-grade varsity Ponies in their 43-12 loss.
A 25-6 first quarter put a real damper on Iola’s hopes but a shutout in the second quarter by both defenses kept the game just barely in reach.
A 9-0 third quarter pretty much dashed those hopes and the clock ran for the entire fourth quarter. The Ponies scored six but were still outscored by three in the fourth quarter.
