Following the team’s 63-55 victory over Anderson County, Iola coach Jay Applegate did not want to give any details on his decision to start senior Chase Regehr over 6-7 junior forward Ethan Holloway.
“It is not about who starts,” Applegate said. “It is about who finishes the game.”
The team’s end-of-the-game lineup was different from usual as well, however, with sophomore guard Derek Bycroft getting his first varsity minutes of the season and joining Holloway, Evan Sigg, Ben Cooper and Isaiah Fawson.
“We always knew he was a good basketball player,” Holloway said. “He is one of the truer point guards we have on our team. He is a very good passer. I was impressed.”
That group played a majority of the fourth-quarter as the Mustangs recovered from a brief 51-50 deficit to pull away for the eight-point win.
“(Bycroft) always works hard in practice,” Applegate said. “We wanted to give him a chance and it worked out.”
With three minutes left, Holloway scored to put the Mustangs back in front 52-51.
Fawson extended the lead to two with a free throw with just under two minutes remaining in the game. After the Mustangs were able to get another defensive stop, Ben Cooper hit a driving layup to give the Mustangs a 55-51 lead.
The Mustang defense remained strong and they continued to dominate the rebounding margin — a major key going into the second half of the season.
Sigg says he and his teammates have had the importance of rebounding the basketball drill into them over break.
“We know that there are consequences behind not getting those rebounds,” Sigg said. “Sprints, lots and lots of sprints.”
Those sprints did the trick for at least one game as the Mustangs controlled the glass and kept collecting the Bulldogs’ misses in the final minutes and parading to the free throw line after Anderson County was forced to foul them to get the ball back.
Both Bycroft and Holloway went three-of-four from the charity stripe in the final minute and Fawson was two-of-two.
A late Anderson County three pointer made the final margin closer, but Iola was able to notch its first Pioneer League win and improve its overall record to 4-3 this season.
Despite not starting the game together for the first time this season, Sigg and Holloway were able to control the game for the Mustangs with 35 combined points.
“We need to run our offense,” Applegate said. “When we have patience, we can get those post touches, but we don’t have patience a lot of times.”
Sigg turned in his best performance of the season with 19 points and was an impossible matchup for the Bulldogs to contain. He was able to drive on the overmatched Anderson County post players by using his quickness, but when the Bulldogs tried to go even smaller and match him with speedier players, Sigg out-muscled them inside.
“I felt pretty good,” Sigg said.
Holloway enjoyed a very similar advantage when he entered the game and scored 16 points off the bench. The junior showed off his diverse offensive game with a pair of ‘and-one’ plays on drives from the top of the key, several strong post moves and a couple perimeter jumpers.
“With our size, I felt we could dominate,” Holloway said.
The Mustangs demonstrated another way that they can hurt teams on the offensive end by using their posts to that extent. Fawson and Cooper combined for just 11 points and took fewer shots than they had been accustomed to in the beginning of the season when they were top scorers for Iola.
If Iola can get its guards and forwards clicking together, the Mustang offense will become very scary for the rest of the Pioneer League.
Regehr played well in his first start of the season with six points.
“Chase is extremely strong for his size and he is a tenacious defender,” Holloway said.
BOX SCORE
Iola 63,
Anderson County 55
Iola 13 13 18 19 – 63
AC 11 17 11 16 – 55
Iola (4-3)
(2pt/3pt-FTM-FTA-Points) Joey Zimmerman 0/1-0-0-3; Ben Cooper 2/0-2-2-6; Isaiah Fawson 1/0-3-4-5; Chase Regehr 2/0-2-2-6; Isaac Vink 0/1-0-0-3; Ethan Holloway 5/0-6-7-16; Zach Cokely 1/0-0-0-2; Derek Bycroft 0/0-3-4-3; Evan Sigg 8/0-3-3-19. TOTALS: 19/2-19-22-63. FOULED OUT: None.
Anderson County
(2pt/3pt-FTM-FTA-Points) Kass Allnutt 3/0-0-0-6; Justin Rockers 1/2-6-8-14; Trevor Johnston 3/5-0-0-21; Damone Kueser 1/1-0-2-5; Austin Peine 1/0-0-0-2; John Rundle 3/1-0-0-7. TOTALS: 12/9-6-10-55. FOULED OUT: Allnutt.
JUNIOR VARSITY
The Iola junior varsity was able to pour it on against Anderson County as they rolled to a 56-25 victory.
Cale Barnhart led the Mustangs with 11 points and Zach Cokely added 10 points.
Eleven different Mustangs were able to score in the game during the rout.
FRESHMEN
The Iola freshmen team lost a close one to Anderson County 46-40.
The Mustangs rallied after trailing 30-15 at halftime, but just ran out of gas down the stretch.
Cal Leonard led the team with 14 points and Brady Wiggin added 10.
UP NEXT
Iola hits the road to take on Osawatomie on Friday.
