With 4:15 left in Iola’s 45-41 win at Osawatomie, the Trojans took their first lead since early in the game as part of a 7-0 run to open the quarter.
Worry started to seep in for the Mustang bench. They’ve seen late-game collapses and play turn on a dime when things started to go poorly earlier in the season and it seemed like they were about due for another showing.
However, trends aside, Tuesday night would not be like the other nights.
Iola answered right back with a 7-0 run of its own with the exclamation point coming with a big three from sophomore Cal Leonard to give the Mustangs the lead with two minutes to play.
Iola scored again to go up three and Osawatomie answered back to tie it with a three with just 38.8 seconds left to play in the game.
With the game all tied up at 41, Iola senior Ethan Holloway grabbed an offensive rebound and with nine seconds left made his way through traffic to make a layup and regain the lead. That was the icing on the cake for Hollway, who led the Mustangs with 15 points for the night.
Senior Evan Sigg made two clutch free throws and the game was won.
“I think we finally showed some toughness,” head coach Luke Bycroft said. “I think it would’ve been just as easy to give up once Osawatomie took the lead like we’ve done in the past. But they didn’t and it wasn’t pretty but we showed some grit and that’s what we’ve been begging for all year. That’s what I’m relieved about.”
Tuesday was the third time this season that Iola has played Osawatomie and they’ve won all three meetings. From the second game of the season to the final matchup, the game was as physical as they come with last night reaching the pinnacle.
“This was the most physical of the three games this season,” Bycroft said. “It wasn’t called tight at all. And it wasn’t just hacking and fouling on the perimeter, this is bodies banging and people getting kicked in the head and the refs letting it go. But we played through it and maybe that’s another piece of evidence that we are getting tougher.”
The Mustangs move to 9-6 on the season and 4-5 in Pioneer League play with the win. They’ll have a short turnaround when they travel on Thursday to face Anderson County, a team that beat them 71-57 last Friday. Bycroft says getting right back into the action may be the best thing for his team right now.
“Practice is hard at this point,” Bycroft said. “It’s hard for them to stay focused. We’ve changed some things up but it’s a good thing that we have such a short turnaround this week. We don’t need two more days to drag this thing out. We’re ready to clean some things up and play.”
Iola (9-18-7-11—45) (2pt/3pt-FT-F-TP) Holloway 7/0-1-3-15, Leonard 0/4-0-1-12, Sigg 2/0-2-2-6, Ashmore 1/1-0-2-5, Vink 2/0-1-0-5, Barnhart 1/0-0-0-2, Regehr 0/0-0-3-0, Rogers 0/0-0-1-0, Bycroft 0/0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 13/5-4-14-45.
Osawatomie (7-13-11-10—41) (2pt/3pt-FT-F-TP) N. Cole 4/4-1-2-21, B. Cole 0/2-0-2-6, King 3/0-0-3-6, Bradley 2/0-0-0-5, Joeckel 2/0-0-2-4, Stults 0/0-0-3-0. TOTALS: 11/6-1-12-41.
PHOTO: Sophomore Cal Leonard defends an inbound pass in the Mustangs 45-41 win at Osawatomie on Tuesday. Leonard had 12 points including a key three to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. REGISTER/TIMOTHY EVERSON
