Prairie View makes plays late to down Fillies, 26-24

Prairie View High senior Brittney Diehm had a painful few minutes late against Iola High’s Fillies Tuesday.
She landed squarely on her knee while fielding an inbound pass, limped on defense briefly, then collided violently with Iola’s Ashlie Shields as the players raced upcourt.
The collision gave Diehm a bloody nose and sent her momentarily to the bench.
The pain she inflicted on the scoreboard, however, was what left the Fillies stinging.
Diehm scored 20 of Prairie View’s 26 points, including a late jumper that broke a 24-24 deadlock with 50 seconds left. She, of course, was in on a key defensive sequence in which she blocked Jo Lohman’s shot out of bounds in the waning seconds.
A last-gasp 3-pointer by Iola’s Sydney Wade went wide as the buzzer sounded, giving the Buffalos a 26-24 win.
The loss was Iola’s first in Pioneer League play. The Fillies now stand at 6-1 in league play and 9-8 overall.
“We just didn’t show up ready to play,” Fillies head coach Becky Carlson said. “And when we made mistakes, we let it bother us the next few possessions.”
The game was a particularly bitter pill to swallow because Iola thrice had possession and a chance to take the lead, but came up empty on each occasion.
Diehm was there to make them pay.
Lohman’s 3-pointer midway through the third quarter helped Iola claw to within 17-16, and Wade’s steal went for naught when she couldn’t connect on the subsequent layup.
Instead, Diehm’s bucket pushed the Buffalos back on top by three.
Lohman connected again from downtown to tie the score at 19-19 with 41 seconds left in the third. The score stayed there until Diehm hit 1 of 2 charities to start the fourth quarter, ended Iola’s next possesison with a steal, and drained two more free throws for a 22-19 advantage. She connected again with 5½    minutes left and Iola was down five.
Emery Driskel connected on a jumper to cut the deficit to three, seconds before Diehm exited to nurse her wounds. She returned about three minutes later — her nose plugged with cotton — and no change in the score.
Lohman connected inside to cut the lead to one, but could not hit a follow-up free throw. She rectified the miss by forcing a tie-up at the other end to give possession back to Iola. Driskel was fouled with 50 seconds left. She missed the first free throw, but hit the second, to tie the score at 24-24.
By then, Diehm had returned to the game. Her jumper with 32 seconds left gave  Prairie the lead for good.
“We didn’t guard her very well,” Carlson said. “We did a good job against her in our first game (a Fillies win at Prairie View in January). We have to shake this off. Prairie View is second in the league, and  we’ll probably be seeing these guys again at substate.”
Iola was ice-cold at the start. The Fillies hit only one field goal in the first quarter and trailed 11-5 with 1:42 left in the second quarter.
But a defense-fueled spurt, including offensive putbacks by Driskel and Wade on a five-point possession, allowed Iola to cut Prairie View’s lead to 13-11 at the break.
Driskel led the way with nine points and three rebounds. Lohman had eight and four boards. Nobody else for Iola had more than two points. Makeala Platt had two steals and two assists. Addie Haar also had two assists.
Free throws were critical. Iola hit only 6 of 13 charities, while Diehm hit 10 of 12 for Prairie View.
The Fillies took home a 23-19 win in junior varsity play. McKayli Cleaver paced the Fillies JV with six points, followed by Riley Murry and Micaiah Larney with four apiece. Taylor Sell scored three. Cassie Delich, Olivia Bannister and Toni Macha had two apiece.
Iola prevailed in the C team contest, 15-13. Jadyn Sigg’s seven points led the way. Brooklyn Storrer followed with four. Della Lohman and Murry scored two each.
One night earlier, the Fillies C team dropped a 23-6 decision to Fort Scott. Murry, Sigg and Alexis Heslop scored two apiece.
Iola returns to action Friday — its fourth game in eight days — to take on host Wellsville.
Prairie View (6-7-6-7—26)
Iola (4-7-8-5—24)
Prairie View (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Snyder 0-0-2-0, Brown 0-0-2-0, Halaquist 3-0-2-6, Diehm 5-10-0-20, Boone 0-0-2-0, Waterman 0-0-1-0, Davis 0-0-3-0, Konitzer 0-0-3-0. TOTALS: 8-10-15-26.
Iola (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Latta 1-6-1-8, Mueller 0-0-3-0, Wallace 7-0-3-14, McIntosh 4-4-2-12, Zimmerman 0/3-0-2-9, Kauth 3-1-1-7, Powelson 1-0-3-2, Peterson 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 16/3-11-17-52