There are ugly wins, and then there are those that coaches would just as soon see the game film burned out of their memories.
Thursday’s 56-44 win for Iola High over visiting Prairie View was kind of like that for head coach Luke Bycroft.
“Chaos. It was pure chaos,” Bycroft said. “They played with chaos, and we didn’t handle it well.”
The Mustangs were never really in danger of losing the lead, and threatened to pull away on occasion, only for Prairie View to claw back courtesy of a burly, physical defense targeted to pressuring Iola on the perimeter.
“There are a lot of things to correct,” Bycroft said. “But I suppose it’s better to correct them after a win than after a loss.”
Iola’s Cortland Carson, who came in averaging more than 25 points a game, came alive down the stretch to help seal the victory, scoring 13 in the fourth quarter.
“He got comfortable out there,” Bycroft said.
Meanwhile, junior Tre Wilson came off the bench to provide several key offensive rebounds late to help Iola stay in front after the Buffalos’ Ethan Teagarden had scored twice in a row to cut Iola’s lead to 43-38.
Wilson corralled two offensive boards in one possession in particular leading to a Carson 3-pointer, pushing the lead black to eight with 3 minutes remaining. Carson added another putback a minute later, and Jordy Kaufman scored on a putback with 1:20 remaining to stretch the lead to 12.
The Buffalos’ Justin Fleer converted a 3-point play before teammate Payton Hopper connected on a 3-point shot to slice the lead back to eight with 36 seconds left.
But the game effectively ended after Teagarden was ejected for an intentional foul against Wilson with about 21 seconds left and Iola up, 53-44. Wilson and Carson combined to hit 3 of 4 charities, and Iola dribbled out the clock with no further disruption.
“Tonight was better than a loss, but we didn’t feel good about it,” Bycroft said. “There was nothing we did particularly well. We’d have spurts, where we’d make two or three plays in a row, and we figured we’d settle in, but then we’d do something dumb.”
Carson wound up with 24 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Wilson with 11 points and seven boards, four on the offensive end. Matthew Beckmon chipped in with seven points and three steals, while Nick Bauer had five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Grady Dougherty also had five rebounds.
“We had a couple of guys who normally don’t get to play much who came in and gave us a spark,” Bycroft said. “Brennen Coffield did some good things, and Hayden Kelley had a big steal to start the fourth quarter.”
Joe Sramek led Prairie View with 11 points. Payton Hopper was next with nine. Mason Mitzner and Grant Steeburgen added eight apiece.
