Iola High’s offense hit the skids at the worst possible time Tuesday evening. THE MUSTANG junior varsity came up short, 38-28. Chase Regehr scored five points for Iola, followed by Kohl Endicott and Ben Cooper with four apiece. Joel Zimmerman added three. Scoring two apiece were Brett Taylor, Gus Hopkins, Alex Kelly, Travis Hermstein, Adam Peterson and Mason Ingle.
After erasing a seven-point deficit to tie visiting Osawatomie to start the fourth quarter, the Mustangs were plagued with bad luck, bad shooting and some plain ole bad decisions.
Osawatomie closed the game with a 13-4 run to pull away down the stretch in a 44-35 win.
The loss drops Iola to 7-7 overall and 3-2 in Pioneer League action, 2 1/2 games behind Osawatomie, which remains perfect at 6-0.
“We made things tough on ourselves,” Iola head coach Bill Peeper said. “We had way too many mental errors, and poor shot selection killed us.”
To wit: Iola’s top four guards combined for one assist on the night.
“We didn’t do a good job of helping ourselves be successful,” he said. “We had too many opportunities where we’d try to force a 1-on-3 fast break.”
Most of those opportunities were either blocked by Osawatomie’s imposing front line, or altered enough that they would bounce harmlessly off the rim.
But even then, Iola still had its chances.
The game was nip and tuck through the first half before Osawatomie’s 8-0 run gave the Trojans a 29-22 lead at the 5:22 mark of the third quarter. Tyler Powelson scored for Iola, then fed teammate Alex Peterson for another score to cut the deficit to three. Powelson’s free throws with 1:05 pulled the Mustangs to within 29-28. Adam Kauth’s 3-point play capped the 9-2 Iola run to knot the score at 31-31.
That’s when things went south. Morgan Soucie — the 6-4 thorn in Iola’s side all night — outscored Iola by himself, 8 to 7, in the fourth quarter.
Tyler McIntosh scored on a driving layup to cut Osawatomie’s lead to 38-35 with 3:16 remaining.
Iola got no closer. The Mustangs missed their final seven field goal attempts.
“We knew what we needed to do,” Peeper said. “We knew how to do it. We just didn’t execute, which you can’t do against a good team like Osawatomie. This puts us in a position that we’re probably not going to be able to challenge for a league title.”
Defensive rebounding also proved troublesome. Peeper estimated 10 of Soucie’s game-high 23 points came on offensive rebounds and putbacks.
Powelson’s 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals led the way for the Mustangs. Kauth followed with seven points, six rebounds and two assists. Fryendz Wallace added three steals and two assists.
Tuesday’s game — which marked Iola’s homecoming after it was twice postponed because of snow — was just the third home game overall for the Mustangs.
“But there are still a lot of goals out there,” Peeper said. “We’ve got a lot of things we want to achieve.”
Bryan Mueller was crowned king, along with Allison Cleaver as queen in a postgame ceremony.
Iola’s C team prevailed over Osawatomie, 39-25.
Braden Plumlee paced Iola with 12 points, followed by Ingle with 11, Isaiah Fawson with seven, Rhett Allen with five, Regehr with three and Garrett Wade with one.
Iola heads to Central Heights Friday.
Osawatomie (5-16-10-13—44)
Iola (9-11-8-7—35)
Osawatomie (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Pursley 1-0-2-2, England 0-2-3-2, Greenwood, 0-1-2-1, Arth 0-0-2-0, Soucie 9-5-1-23, Rayl 1/1-0-3-5, Booe 3-5-2-11. TOTALS: 14/1-13-15-44.
Iola (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Latta 1/1-0-3-5, Cooper 1-0-0-2, Mueller 0-1-1-1, Wallace 2-0-4-4, McIntosh 2-0-4-4, Kauth 1-5-1-7, Powelson 4-2-2-10, Peterson 1-0-3-2. TOTALS: 12/1-8-18-35.
Late struggles do in Mustangs
