POMONA — Iola High’s Mustangs had a little fun in putting the finishing touches on their busiest stretch of the season.
Iola capped the whirlwind schedule with a 67-36 victory Tuesday over host West Franklin.
The win lifts Iola’s record to 8-3.
“We did a good job,” Mustang head coach Luke Bycroft said. “We guarded pretty well. We rebounded pretty well. We were aggressive.”
West Franklin’s style of play could have proven troublesome for Iola’s squad, with a starting front line measuring 6-7 and 6-4.
Instead, the Mustangs used it to their advantage, speeding past the slower Falcons up and down the court.
West Franklin tried utilizing a pressure defense at the start, Bycroft noted.
Bad idea.
“We were able to get up and down the court against them,” he said.
Landon Carson scored seven straight points to give the Mustangs a 13-6 lead before Dillon Bycroft scored at the buzzer for a nine-point cushion.
Carson then added five more points to start the second quarter, pushing the lead to 20-6.
It was part of a 13-4 run, capped by Nathan Louk’s basket midway through the quarter, pushing the Mustangs on top, 28-10.
Louk’s putback to start the second half put the spread at 20 for the first time before West Franklin put together its strongest rally of the contest.
Trey Rogers connected twice from 3-point range and hit a layup as part of a 13-4 Falcon run to slice Iola’s lead to 42-31.
“We let them back into it, but once we woke up, we stretched it back out a bit,” Coach Bycroft said.
Sure enough, Carson’s 3-pointer triggered a quick 10-point rally to end the quarter, capped by Louk’s half-court 3-pointer in front of the third-quarter buzzer.
