BURLINGTON — The sharp-shooting abilities of Iola seniors Ben Cooper and Isaiah Fawson were the driving force for Iola early in a Burlington Invitational semifinal against Independence.
Unfortunately it was a freshman from Independence who controlled the rest of the game. Davion Lewis — a 6-4 forward — led the Bulldogs to a 65-55 victory.
“We just self-destructed,” Iola coach Jay Applegate said. “The white team didn’t beat us tonight, it was definitely the blue team, which was our color. We had a lot of success in the first quarter and we didn’t handle it well. We will come back tomorrow and test our character.”
The Mustangs quickly jumped out to an 18-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and that lead grew to 21-9 early in the second quarter and then to 27-15 after back-to-back triples by Fawson and Cooper.
The matchup of former SEK rivals wasn’t meant to be a blowout and Independence ended the second quarter on 10-0 run to cut it to 27-25.
The Bulldogs promptly got within one point early in the third quarter, but another three pointer by Fawson and a basket from Cooper extended the lead to 32-26.
Lewis hit a three and Zeadric Daniels had a bucket to get Independence back within one.
The lead bounced back and forth for a couple minutes in the third quarter, but a pair of Lewis three pointers turned a three-point Bulldog deficit into a 43-40 lead at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was all Independence.
Independence senior Zack Schroeder hit a three pointer to extend the lead and then Lewis had back-to-back baskets to extend the lead to 10.
That is were the lead stayed for the rest of the game as the Mustangs were never able to seriously cut into that margin and the Bulldogs converted on their free throws to seal the 65-55 win.
The Mustangs will be happy that they don’t have to face Lewis in the next four years in league play. The freshman put up a game-high 29 points.
Fawson nearly matched Lewis’ production with 28 of his own and Cooper added 15.
The problem for the Mustang offense was that outside of their ‘big three’ of Cooper, Fawson and Ethan Holloway – who had seven – the rest of the team combined for just five points.
