Mere seconds stood before joy and crushing defeat Friday night as the Iola boys saw their third game in a row go down the tubes in a loss to Independence in the Burlington Invitational Tournament.
The Mustangs (5-5, 2-2) had hope with 20 seconds left to play as junior guard Blake Ashmore rattled his sixth three of the game home to tie up the game at 52-all.
Not even 15 seconds later, the Bulldogs marched up the court and their big man, Davion Lewis, who hadn’t hit a jumper all day, nailed a wide-open three to give Independence the lead with 5.1 seconds left on the clock.
After a timeout for Iola, the Mustangs headed back on the court to hope for a miracle and senior Ethan Holloway turned it over while taking it up the court, ending the game for Iola.
While that was upsetting, what frustrated head coach Luke Bycroft the most was that the Mustangs went into the quarter up two and they led in the second half by as many as eight.
With three minutes left in the game, it was tied and with a minute and a half left, that lead was gone.
“I know it probably sounds dumb but we need to learn how to play with the lead against a good team,” Bycroft said. “And they are a good team. Their record may not be good but they’ve played some tough competition. They’re a difficult team to play and we handled that for quite a while. Once we got a lead or had a chance to extend a lead we had a silly turnover.”
The Mustangs weren’t without their limiting factors Friday night. In addition to starting guards Derek Bycroft and Cale Barnhart still sidelined with an injury, Iola was without junior guard Cole Regehr who was sick along with senior Evan Sigg, who played and scored 10 points but did not start and was far from 100 percent. The team was also without senior contributor Zach Cokely who left the team after Wednesday’s loss to Sabetha.
With those departures and illness, Bycroft brought out a new four-guard lineup to start the game with sophomore Calvin Delich starting at point for the first time this season.
“Calvin is one speed and it’s full,” Bycroft said. “He’s fast, he’s aggressive, he’s athletic and he boxes out well. Down the stretch, he didn’t play as much because he wasn’t as experienced and they were bringing some pressure but he does stuff with a ton of energy.”
The line-up, while done in part to help limit the sick Sigg’s minutes, was also a way to get at Lewis who has had success for the Bulldogs this season, even though his team had struggled to a 1-9 record up to that point.
“It gave us a chance to isolate Holloway and I thought and still think that he has the advantage offensively against their big guy defensively,” Bycroft said. “Really for the most, when he stayed on him and we got the ball to him, he got their kid in the air and either scored or was fouled.”
Two threes for the Bulldogs gave them a three-point lead heading into the half. The Mustangs came out strong and responded with a 10-0 run to start the half that gave them their largest lead of the game to that point.
“We really didn’t change anything,” Bycroft said. “We just talked about how we could be doing the things that we were doing a little bit better. In the first half, what kept Independence around was the fact that they were getting some offensive rebounds. Once we stopped their zone penetration and offensive rebounding and started taking the ball to the hoop, we made our run.”
A 7-1 run turned into a 15-8 run for Independence and from there the Mustangs couldn’t hang on.
Iola will face Pioneer League foe Prairie View in the 7th-place game at 1:35 today. Iola beat the Buffalos 48-36 at home in December.
