Mustangs fall 49-48 in ‘frustrating’ finish

BURLINGTON — When the dust cleared and the scoreboard (allegedly) hit :00 in one of the most bizarre endings in recent memory, Iola High’s Mustangs saw their ferocious comeback wind up one point shy of its mark.
Iola trailed by as many as 13 in the fourth quarter before ending the game with a 15-3 run.
Ben Cooper’s 3-pointer in the waning seconds cut Rossville’s lead to 49-48, but Iola was whistled for a technical foul because head coach Bill Peeper called a timeout the officials said he didn’t have.
“Everybody had us for a timeout except for the official book. Both of our charts have us with one, I have no doubt that the Rossville chart has us with one,” coach Bill Peeper said. “But, we have to go by the official book. They weren’t willing to check with everyone.”
The second issue was sparked by a frequently malfunctioning clock that didn’t stop after Cooper hit his trey and Peeper was whistled for the technical.
Officials reset the clock at 2.5 seconds, and while Rossville’s Thatcher Horack proceeded to miss four straight free throws — the last two with eight-tenths of a second left — Iola didn’t have enough time to set up a last-second heave to try for the miracle.
“They weren’t going to give us a break on that. It’s just frustrating the way it ended,” Peeper said. “We fought hard and we got back into it. We hit some shots. The passion, energy and emotion — we kind of put it all together there during the final stretch. For it to end on something like that is unfortunate. We still beat ourselves, we were like 2-100 at the line or something.”
Instead, the 49-48 loss puts the Mustangs in the seventh-place game of the Burlington tournament. Iola takes on Santa Fe Trail today at about 1:30 p.m. in the Burlington Middle School gymnasium.

THE LEAD stood between 10 and 13 points from there until Peterson scored in the final minute of the third period and Kaden Macha hit 1 of 2 free throws to cut the gap to 38-29. Cooper’s first trey of the game pulled Iola to within 38-32.
But Tucker Horack responded with a 3-pointer of his own, and Thatcher Horack’s bucket put the lead back in double digits.
Lake Schultz-Pruner scored a short while later to push the lead to 46-33 with about 3 minutes remaining.
Peterson and Macha took full advantage of Rossville’s mistakes down the stretch.
Peterson scored five straight points before Macha drained consecutive jumpers to cut the lead to 46-42 with 1:28 left.
The Bulldogs proceeded to miss 4 of their next 6 free throw attempts — another common theme — and Macha’s 3-pointer with 28 seconds on the clock cut the deficit to 48-45.
Tucker Horack went 1 of 2 from the line with 25 seconds left to push the lead to 49-45.
Macha’s baseline drive came tantalizingly close to falling before rimming out. A held ball ruling gave possession back to Iola.
That led to Cooper’s trey and the bizarre finish.
Sloppy play was the name of the game in the game’s opening.
Rossville’s early 13-2 run was capped with Lorenzo Mason’s free throws late in the first quarter. The Bulldogs led, 15-8.
Adam Peterson, in the best game of his high school career, proved to be a beast for Rossville’s defenders. His putback in the second quarter cut the deficit to 20-18 before Rossville responded with an 14-2 run to lead 34-20.
Macha led the way with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Peterson scored a career-high 17 points with eight boards.
Tucker Horack’s 12 paced Rossville. Thatcher Horack was right behind with 11.
Even though the game ended in disarray, Peeper was happy with the energy the Mustangs played with down the stretch. After all, the team had to make a comeback for their to even be a controversy.
“I felt really good about the energy we showed,” Peeper said. “Brett Taylor, Kaden Macha and Adam Peterson all had more than eight rebounds. Kaden and Brett were both in double-digits, which is great. They were working so hard. They just gave us a chance on the boards. Just the foul trouble we got into and not making the shots were enough to beat us in the end.”

Rossville 49, Iola 48
Rossville (15-20-3-12—49) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Roduner 0-0-2-0, Th. Horack 2/1-4-3-11, Sowers 2-3-4-7, C. Horack 2-2-1-6, Schultz-Pruner 1-3-2-5, Tu. Horack 0/3-3-3-12, Hammes 0-0-1-0, Mason 0/1-2-1-4, Woodcock 0-1-1-1, Hulbert 1-0-4-2. TOTALS: 8-5-18-22-49.
Iola (12-12-5-19—48) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Cooper 0/2-0-4-6, Fawson 0-0-2-0, Endicott 0-0-2-0, Taylor 1-1-3-3, Aiello 0-0-2-0, Hermstein 1-0-0-2, Walden 1-0-4-2, Bauer 0-0-2-0, Macha 5/1-5-3-18, Peterson 7-3-4-17. TOTALS: 15/3-9-26-48.