YATES CENTER — The Iola High School girls basketball team picked up its second win of the season in thrilling fashion, defeating Yates Center 20-18 after a late jumper put the Mustangs ahead.
Iola started the game with Josie Plumlee hitting a free throw to go ahead 1-0 early. That lead would soon be lost when Yates Center made two of their own. From there, no lead was safe.
The two teams exchanged the lead like a hot potato after turnovers began to overwhem Iola, allowing Yates Center extra possessions and a few fast break points. Once Iola got it together though, the Mustangs looked the best they have all season.
The Mustangs took control and dominated in the closing portion of the first half, storming away on an 11-2 run that saw the Mustangs establish the biggest lead of the night. Iola went into halftime up 12-8.
Once the break was over, the two teams went back to slugging it out, with Yates Center tying the game at 12-12 early in the half, soon taking a 14-12 lead while on a 6-0 run. Iola came back with a 5-3 run to gain a two-point lead late in the third.
A three-point lead heading to the fourth let the crowd know they were in for a great finish, and that’s what they got.
With 2:18 left, Iola and Yates Center were tied at 18 in a defensive battle. Both defenses stepped up late, making life hard on either team’s shooters.
Neither offense could do anything late, as both teams felt the late game pressure getting to them.
With less than a minute left, Iola’s Plumlee got a pass down low and sank a mid-range jumper to put Iola up 20-18.
Yates Center called a timeout to regroup. With five seconds left, the Wildcats had a shot to tie the game, with two free throws. Those were missed and Iola worked the clock to double zeros to secure the win.
“All wins are wins,” said Iola coach Kelsey Johnson. “We had a hard time scoring tonight and that’s been the story a lot. We played really good defense, when you hold a team to 18 points, you hopefully win most of those games.”
Iola (5-7-6-2—20)
Houk 1 0 4 2, Plumlee 3/1 1 4 10, Boyd 1 0 1 2, Sell 0 2 2 2, Miller 0 1 2 1, J. Curry 0/1 0 1 3. TOTALS 5/2 4 16 20
Yates Center (4-4-5-3-18)
Jones 0 0 3 0, Collins 1 0 2 2, Westerman 0 4 1 4, Miller 2 0 3 4, Solander 3 0 3 6, Chrisman 1 0 0 2. Totals 7 4 12 18
