The Iola 8th grade A-team faced a very difficult task on Saturday morning. In the span of four hours they would face off with Chanute and Pittsburg.
The Ponies would drop both contests, but that didn’t mean Ponies coach Marty Taylor didn’t learn plenty about his team over those two games.
After falling to Chanute in the opener of the three-team round robin tournament, Iola faced Pittsburg and quickly fell behind 17-2 at the end of the first quarter.
The Ponies rebounded though and led by their backcourt duo of Casen Barker and Cal Leonard, they clawed back into the game.
“They came back,” Taylor said. “We did a good job coming back. We just gave up too many easy points to a very athletic team and they got up on us… Overall a good effort. The kids played hard.”
Barker was able to seemingly break the press with more and more ease each trip down the floor in the middle part of the game and when he wasn’t finishing himself, he was finding Pony star Leonard for open jump shots.
“When we get out and run we play better,” Taylor said.
Leonard finished with 10 points in the game, while Barker dumped in nine.
“Cal does a good job, when he’s open, he knocks them down,” Taylor said.
The Ponies cut the lead to 10 at halftime and opened the third quarter on a tear cutting the margin to just two points at one juncture.
Pittsburg was able to stretch it out to six points heading into the fourth quarter and outscored Iola 13-2 in the final session to pull away for a 46-29 win.
Pittsburg was led by Elkamil with 17 points and Mahnaken with 14.
“He’s a good athlete and a good basketball player,” Taylor said of Elkamil. “He’s one of the few kids that will pass before he shoots.”
IOLA’S matchup with Chanute played out very differently from the Pittsburg game but ended with the same result.
The Ponies jumped on Chanute early and thanks to some strong defense led 5-3 at the end of the first quarter.
“The first two quarters we couldn’t play much better,” Taylor said.
Chanute came back to take a 12-11 halftime lead and owned the Ponies in the second half, outscoring them 30-3 to cruise to a 42-14 victory.
“They took it to us in the second half, that is all there is to it,” Taylor said.
Iola was led in scoring by Casen Barker with seven, while #13 led a very balanced Chanute squad with eight.
