OSAWATOMIE — One free throw. One rebound. One foul. One shot. One second.
If any of these things would have gone differently for the Mustangs, the outcome in Osawatomie may have been very different. But instead, the Mustangs came home on Tuesday night with a stinging 69-59 overtime loss to the Trojans.
“Our kids played hard,” Iola coach Jay Applegate said. “I’m really proud of them.”
With 35 seconds left in regulation, the pivotal foul occurred.
Trojans’ guard Derek Manes drove to the basket and was fouled by sophomore Evan Sigg. It was Sigg’s fifth foul and now the Mustangs were without their second most productive big man and one of their top rebounders. Sigg finished with 10 points.
“Ethan (Holloway) and Sigg did a great job rebounding,” Applegate said. “They rebounded like men.”
Manes went 0-for-2 from the charity stripe, but junior Trojan Robby Joeckel got the jump on everybody and grabbed inside position on the miss.
Joeckel snagged the rebound and called timeout with what appeared to be 30 seconds on the clock. However, during the stoppage in play, the officials went to the score table to talk to the scoreboard operator.
As the timeout ended, the clock was changed to read 31.7 seconds. One second was added to the clock at the officials request.
“They didn’t stop it soon enough,” Applegate said, explaining why the time was added.
The Mustangs fouled Trevor Ballou as he drove the lane coming out of the timeout. The 6-2 junior nailed both of his foul shots to cut the deficit to 53-52.
Mustangs guard Isaiah Fawson was fouled with 19 seconds remaining and the junior stepped to the line and hit both free throws to again put the margin at three.
Another Mustangs’ foul again stopped the clock and put Osawatomie’s Riley England on the line. England only made one of two and the lead was at 2.
Iola point guard Ben Cooper got fouled with 10 seconds left and went to the free throw line with a chance to seal the win with two makes or make the Trojans have to hit a three with one make.
Cooper missed both and hope was still alive for Osawatomie.
“Free throws and being impatient on offense probably was our Achille’s heel,” Applegate said.
