RIVERTON — Riverton’s burly defense made life tough for Iola high’s girls Friday.
The short-handed Mustangs endured a pair of lengthy offensive dry spells in the first half of their Class 3A Substate Tournament opener.
The host Rams held Iola to a single field goal over the final 4½ minutes of the first quarter, turning a 10-0 run into a 17-7 lead.
Iola’s Haidyn Desmarteau ended the drought with a traditional 3-point play 2 minutes into the second quarter.
But another dry spell allowed Riverton to pull away with a 14-0 run.
Iola picked up its offense down the stretch, but couldn’t make a dent in Riverton’s lead.
The 55-22 loss ends Iola’s season at 7-14, after the young squad — with zero seniors on the roster — entered the postseason on its best run of the 2025-26 campaign, having won three of its last four.
But Riverton (18-5) showed no interest in keeping things exciting.
Iola’s Brooklyn Holloway gave the Mustangs an early charge with a 3-pointer and a runner to keep things close at 7-5 midway through the first quarter.
But Riverton sealed things up with a pair of 16-2 spurts to open a 39-9 lead by the halftway point of the third quarter.
Desmarteau ended her freshman campaign with a flourish, scoring Iola’s last six points of the game. She wound up with 12. Holloway scored seven. Freshman Breighlyn Rutherford scored three.
Iola was without the services of one of its key performers, junior Zoie Hesse, because the dual-sport star was in Salina, wrestling her way to a Class 4A State silver medal.
The fifth-seeded Rams advanced to fourth-seeded Girard for a Substate semifinal matchup, with the winner to take on either top-seeded Jayhawk-Linn or No. 8 seed West Franklin for a berth in next week’s Class 3A State Tournament.
