By all accounts, Wednesday’s makeup game between Iola High’s Fillies and visiting Osawatomie meant nothing in the big picture.
Both teams are locked into their upcoming substate matchups, and with the postseason just days away — it starts Saturday for Iola, with another game in between — it would be easy to put Wednesday’s contest into the file of near-misses for Iola.
But that doesn’t take away the sting.
The Fillies were unable to hold on to a nine-point, fourth-quarter lead in a game that wasn’t decided until a last-second 3-pointer from Iola rimmed out, giving Osawatomie a 41-38 victory.
“It’s frustrating, because I see how hard the girls are working,” Fillies head coach Kelsey Larson said. “They want to win, and the effort is there. They can’t get over that hump. They piece it together, but they haven’t been able to piece it together all four quarters.”
The game was deadlocked at 37 apiece when Osawatomie’s Allie Lagasse drilled a 3-pointer with 51 seconds left.
Each team misfired on its subsequent possession before Lauryn Holloway hit the first of two free throws with 16 seconds left, to cut the gap to 40-38.
Lagasse hit one of two free throws with 11 seconds remaining. Iola lost the ball bringing it up court, but the Trojans’ Madie Ballow left the door open by missing both of her subsequent charities with 6 seconds left.
Iola’s Hannah Gardner corralled the rebound, racing just beyond the midcourt stripe to pass it off to sophomore sharpshooter Aysha Houk who got a clean look from about 20 feet away.
But the shot rimmed out as the buzzer sounded.
“It was in and out,” Johnson lamented. “She’s our best shooter, and Aysha had some big, big shots that got us some fire. That’s who you want in that position. You want her there.”
And, Johnson added, the game shouldn’t have come down to the last possession like that.
“It goes back to our second quarter, when we had 10 turnovers and lost our lead,” Johnson said.
If anything, Wednesday’s defeat was a microcosm of the season for Iola, with fleeting moments of brilliance followed by hiccups.
The Fillies broke out of the starting gate quickly, with four of the five starters connecting from teh field. Lauryn Holloway’s free throws at the 2:15 mark of the quarter put Iola on top, 12-5.
But things stalled from there.
Iola didn’t connect from the field again until Holloway hit a layup with 5:30 left in the half.
Nevertheless, Iola’s defense kept Osawatomie from doing much either.
