The Indianola girls basketball team fell one game away from Wells Fargo Arena Tuesday evening on the road at Johnston, falling to the Dragons 84-61 in the regional final heard live on 94.3 KNIA. The Dragons came out of the gate red hot, making five three-point buckets in the first quarter to earn a 28-18 lead after the first eight minutes, then outscored the Indians again by 10 in the second quarter to lead 52-32 at the halftime break.

Indianola wouldn’t quit and go away however, making a late run in the third to get the deficit down to just 14 points going into the fourth with momentum and opportunities to get it lower in the opening minutes of the final quarter, but missed shots and a pair of three-point buckets for the Dragons sealed their victory. Indians head coach Jeff Janssen tells KNIA Sports his first season as coach two years ago ended with a blowout loss to the Dragons with many of the same Indianola players, but he’s seen how far they have come since that moment.

“As I told the girls, that is their buy-in. That is their commitment to getting in the gym in the offseason, and then just caring about each other. Our girls definitely cared about each other. And a lot of tears in the locker room tonight, but that means something, that means they cared. This year raised the bar from the last two years of what we wanted to achieve, and I know we are going to have a lot of hungry juniors and seniors next year who will want to end our season in a bit bigger of a venue than this one.”

Sophomore guard Emily Naughton had a career high 22 points to lead the way. Indianola ends their season with an 18-5 record, and graduates just one senior in Kendall Clatt.