The Indianola basketball teams swept Carlisle Monday night to wrap up the 2021 portions of their schedule, the girls winning 54-35 and the boys 61-21 as heard live on 94.3 KNIA.

The Indians girls were shorthanded coming into the game, but game out of the gates swinging to lead 23-4 at the end of the first, and 31-16 at halftime. The Wildcats would refuse to go away despite the Indians building a lead as high as 20 in the third quarter, and battled to get the lead down to 11 points with just over three minutes remaining, but the Indians had enough momentum to pull away again and come away with a win. Lauren Blake led all scorers with 26 points and had 6 rebounds, while Kinzey Johnston had 12 points and 6 boards.

The Indians boys survived an ugly start to lead 7-6 at the end of the first quarter. After the Wildcats hit the first shot of the second quarter to lead 8-7, the Indians offense woke up as they went on a 22-3 run to lead 29-11 at the halftime break, and continued their run throughout the second half to lead 47-18 at the end of the three, and coasted to the win emptying the bench.

Junior forward Charlie Wilmott tells KNIA Sports after the slow start, it was the Indians being able to drive and score at the basket that was a big part of the win.

“We work on finishing a lot at practice, and we have a lot of experienced guys who know what varsity contact is like. We know we need to get to the hoop and finish.”

The girls improve to 6-2, the boys to 3-3, and both teams will next play in 2022 on January 4th hosting Grinnell.