The Indianola boys and girls basketball teams were swept by Warren County rival Carlisle Monday night in their final games of 2023, the boys falling 60-56 and the girls 61-50, with both heard live on 94.3 KNIA.

The Indians boys fell behind early 21-9 after the first quarter, then couldn’t get back into the game in the second quarter, trailing 32-23 at the break. Freshman Hayden Schulte hit a three-pointer to start the third to get the lead down to six, but the Indians were scoreless over the next several minutes as Carlisle would build their lead as high as 18 points in the fourth quarter. Jack Bingaman scored eight straight points as the Indians answered with a 13-0 run to get back in the game, and got the lead down to just three with less than a minute to go with possession, but couldn’t get the tying shot to go in. Schulte led the team with 19 points, while Easton McGraw scored 14.

The Indians girls had much of the same story, as they fell behind by double digits early on, and seemingly had no answer for the fast-paced Wildcats, trailing 19-9 after the first and 33-20 at halftime. Neither team would score much in the third, but Indianola clawed back to trail 44-35 going into the fourth, and trailed by as much as 12 with seven minutes to go, but then went on a run to get the deficit to just five before Carlisle iced the game going 6/6 from the free throw line.

Head coach Jeff Janssen said after the game the game changed when Indianola played without fear of contact, and went to the basket aggressively in the second half.

“Finishing is a big one for us. In the first half, we were going to the hoop expecting to get fouled or trying to get fouled, in the second half we went to the hoop expecting to score. That mindset change got us to the free throw line, we made some more than we did in the first half. Some of that is the girls growing up, but some of that is putting our playmakers in different spots.”

Alexa Guyer scored 12 points to lead the team.

The boys fall to 0-6, the girls to 2-7, and both teams next play on January 5th hosting Dallas Center-Grimes.