LACYGNE — The Mustangs played a good first quarter, but quickly fell behind to lose at Prairie View 55-35 Thursday night.
“I know that we weren’t really good,” coach Bill Peeper said. “It was kind of an emotionless, energy-less, passionless game. I don’t know how it came to be that we show up, but we didn’t really show up.”
Iola started the game down 5-0, but quickly erased the deficit. Kaden Macha put the Mustangs on the board with a 3-pointer with 5:35 left in the first quarter. Only 20 seconds later, Kohl Endicott made a turnaround basket in the lane that banked off the backboard and into the hoop to tie it at 5-5.
Prairie View made a couple of foul shots to take the lead, again. Endicott tied things up, again. This time he grabbed an offensive rebound and went back up for the nice bucket.
Still, the Prairie View offense was starting to get hot and went on a 4-0 run. Macha kept things tight with a putback basket, however Prairie View answered to put the score in their favor at 13-9 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Buffalos stampeded to a double-digit lead by doubling up the Mustangs 16-8 in the quarter. Prairie View’s Trent Phelps scored two 3-pointers, with one coming as the clock expired.
Iola only scored to field goals in the quarter, both came on a 4-0 run before Phelps’ last second 3-pointer. Cooper drove the lane for his only basket of the night, and Peterson made a putback. Iola trailed 29-17 at the half.
Iola’s shooting went sour in the second half. Prairie View started the half off with a 6-0 run, before Brice Aiello ended Iola’s drought with a 3-pointer at the 4:30 mark. Iola trailed 35-20.
Prairie View then scored five straight points to take a 40-20 lead with two minutes left in the quarter. Iola gave the fans a glimmer of hope with their own 6-0 run.
Macha started things off with a layup in transition, Shane Walden made both of his free throw attempts and Macha converted on a drive from the baseline.
With 15 seconds left in the third, Prairie View’s Levi Ross scored under the hoop to end the Iola run. He ended the game 17 points — most coming in the paint.
The Mustangs were outscored 13-9 in the fourth quarter. Macha hit Endicott in transition for a quick bucket, but Iola still trailed 42-28 with 7:05 left. Macha scored four of his 15 points in the quarter. Iola’s Joey Zimmerman scored the Mustang’s last basket, banking a jumper off the backboard while being fouled. He converted the free throw, but it was too little too late. Iola lost 55-35.
“Obviously, we want to put it behind us. But, we’ve also got to learn from it,” Peeper said. “We’re struggling for consistency. We’ve got to find the right combination of guys and we’re not getting that. We can’t only be good when the defender is slower than us or we’re bigger than them. We have to be consistently ready to play.”
He reiterated the team will be looking for the right rotation of players to create a better chemistry on the court. He said the team can’t rely on Macha every game.
“In all honesty, Kaden was probably our only offense tonight because he was trying to find his shots,” Peeper said. “It can’t be that way. It’s on us as coaches.”
