Just when the Fillies had begun to pick up momentum this season with a pair of consecutive wins, their schedule dealt them another blow on Tuesday night.
The Fillies now sit at 2-3 on the season after a 54-36 loss to Burlington.
Burlington is the No. 4 ranked 4A-II team in the state. Iola has faced two of the top-four teams in the state already this season with Girard being ranked second.
The Fillies got off to a slow start on Tuesday by falling behind 9-0 to open the game.
The Fillies responded from there, however, with baskets from seniors Della Lohman and Toni Macha to cut the lead to 9-4 and Macha had another basket followed by two Sydney Wade free throws to keep the Fillies in the game at 13-8.
Burlington answered the Wade free throws with a 7-0 run and they didn’t allow the Fillies to score another field goal for the rest of the half.
“We really got rattled early, I felt like,” Iola coach Becky Carlson said. “We didn’t shoot well in the first half and we had a lot of turnovers.”
Katie Bauer and Colbi Riley each had a pair of free throws in the second quarter for Iola, but Burlington extended the lead to 27-12 at halftime.
The lead got as high as 25 early in the fourth quarter, but a 10-0 Iola run cut the margin to 48-33 midway through the fourth.
“This loss by no means defines our season,” Carlson said. “In the second half, we battled back, but we were just so far down that we couldn’t get back up.”
Burlington was able to stop the Iola momentum and they cruised to the 18-point victory.
A big key to the defensive dominance of the Wildcats was limiting Wade to just eight points. The point guard averaged 22 points-per-game in the Fillies last two games, both wins.
“They rushed us,” Carlson said.
Macha led the Fillies in scoring with 11 points and Riley and Lohman each had six.
Macha and Wade each played nearly every minute of the game until the very end in an effort to come back. Carlson said afterwards that she is willing to allow her two stars to do that and that they both are in good enough shape to have their minutes pushed upwards.
“I think they can maintain it,” Carlson said. “They won’t tell me that they can’t.”
