RICHMOND — Iola High School girls basketball coach Emily Sigg earned her first win while helming the Mustangs during Thursday’s 47-29 victory over Central Heights.
With the win, the Mustangs play for fifth place in the Ike Cearfoss Basketball Tournament Friday night. The results were not available at press time.
“It’s good to get the first win, especially this early in the season,” Coach Sigg said. “I thought we could get this win, but I did not want to project that to the girls because I still wanted them to go out and play hard.”
The Mustangs’ completion of Sigg’s objective seemed evident after the conclusion of the first half, when the Mustangs jumped out to a 24-7 lead.
A pair of 3-pointers by junior guard Brooklyn Holloway and freshman guard Haidyn Desmarteau and a bucket by freshman forward Breighlynn Rutherford gave Iola a slim, 12-10, advantage after the first quarter. 
Iola then clamped down on defense, holding the Lady Vikings to 7 points in the second quarter.
The offense asserted itself in the post with junior Zoie Hesse and Rutherford combining for 10 of the Mustangs’ 12 points in the second quarter.
“Our coach kept telling us we need to get fired up. We need to get out. We needed to play good defense and that will carry on to our offense,” Holloway said. “When we’re out there getting stops and defensive slaps, it did. We stepped up on defense, then we started scoring, getting it into our posts and everything started to get good.”
Hesse continued to have the hot hand in the second half, netting the majority of her team-leading 18 points in the second and third quarters.
Desmarteau finished with 9 points while Holloway and Rutherford added 8 points each.
“They were being pushy, and the refs were calling fouls, but I just wanted to prove to them you can still be pushy and we’re still going to get points,” Hesse said. “It’s mainly both of our point guards helping us. They know how to feed us, where to feed us. They help set up and hit us.”
With the win, the Mustangs improved to 1-2 and hope to even their record to 2-2 with a victory over Kansas City Christian Friday. For the final score from Friday’s game, visit www.iolaregister.com.
