Despite furious comeback, Wildcats fall to Iola in overtime

Louisburg junior Weston Guetterman drives to the basket for two of his 17 points Wednesday during the Class 4A sub-state semifinal in Iola. Guetterman tied the game with three seconds left on a lay-up to send it to overtime.

IOLA – Louisburg found itself down 20 points on the road in the fourth quarter Wednesday against Iola in the Class 4A sub-state semifinals and its season looked lost.

The end of the Wildcats’ year appeared imminent – that was until they put together their best quarter of basketball all season. Louisburg scored 32 fourth quarter points and rallied to force overtime

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, that rally didn’t extend to the extra period. Iola controlled the overtime and ended Louisburg’s season with a 77-68 win.

“It was a tough game,” Louisburg coach Ty Pfannenstiel said. “We were flat and we played poorly for three quarters. It would have been real easy to pack it in, but we made a heck of a comeback in the fourth quarter to give us a shot. Things just didn’t go our way in overtime.”

Things weren’t going the Wildcats’ way through the first three quarters as Iola shot better than 55 percent from the field, while Louisburg struggled to get things going offensively as it scored 16 first half points. The Wildcats trailed 30-16 at halftime, despite getting out to a 6-0 lead to start the game.

Louisburg (8-13) was behind 50-30 to start the fourth quarter and Iola was in firm control of the game, but the early in the final period, the Wildcats were able to catch a break.

Iola point guard Calvin Delich was issued a double technical foul and was ejected from the game, which helped give the Wildcats new life as they began their improbable comeback.

“That was huge,” Pfannenstiel said. “He was their point guard and we were able to get points out of it with the clock stopped. Plus, it took out a ball handler and a key to their offense.”

The Wildcats then turned up the pressure defensively and were able to get several key stops and force turnovers down the stretch. The Wildcats forced 18 turnovers for the game, many of those coming in the fourth quarter and they scored 19 points off those Iola mistakes.

Louisburg was down 57-45 midway through the quarter, but went on an 11-0 run thanks to five straight points from Julian Margrave, a basket from Garrett Rolofson and back-to-back scores from Weston Guetterman to cut the lead to one.

It was a two-point game with under 10 seconds remaining, when Guetterman drove to the basket and converted the lay-up with three seconds left to tie the game and force overtime.

“Weston is aggressive and when he can get downhill and get the ball to the rim he is a force in there,” Pfannenstiel said. “He has been out with some sickness, and every timeout that we called he was coughing in the huddle, so for him to gut it out like he did – we really needed that. All our kids made plays to get it to overtime, but we just didn’t quite have enough.

“We picked up some full-court pressure and picked up some turnovers and our defense definitely sparked our offense. We were just playing with a lot more energy. Moving forward, we have to understand that we have to play hard for 32 minutes. Every team is good, and every team has good players, and if you don’t execute and play with energy then you can get yourself in a pretty big hole. We had no margin for error in the fourth, but just fell short.”

Iola outscored the Wildcats 15-6 in the overtime to pull away as it converted at the free-throw line to seal the win. Iola would go on to face Piper in the sub-state championship, but Piper won 68-30 and was one of two Frontier League teams to make it to state. Ottawa was the other team as it defeated Independence, 48-42.

Margrave helped bring the Wildcats back as the Louisburg sophomore scored a team-high 23 points and nine rebounds. Guetterman also finished in double figures with 17 points and added a team-high six assists and four steals.

Rolofson, a senior, made an impact in his final game as a Wildcat as he tallied 12 points and nine rebounds, while junior Ben Guetterman added nine points. Fellow senior Michael Waldron also had a team-high four steals to go along with six points.

“It’s tough,” Pfannenstiel said of the loss. “I told the guys that I wasn’t prepared to give that (end of the season) speech and really it is hard to find the right thing to say after a game like that. The one thing I can say is that they are good kids and they showed great commitment to this program. They represented and school with a lot of character and pride. That is what we will remember the most of these guys is what they have done for our program and their commitment to the offseason workouts and being good kids and role models.

“We thank our seniors for everything they have done for us and they were a big part of our program. We also have a lot of young kids on the court and hopefully we can use this game as motivation to get better for next year.”

LOU               10           6             14           32           6 – 68

IOLA              15           15           20           12           15 – 77

LOUISBURG (8-13): Julian Margrave 9-23 3-4 23; Weston Guetterman 6-17 4-5 17; Garrett Rolofson 4-8 3-4 12; Ben Guetterman 3-10 2-2 9; Michael Waldron 2-9 0-0 6; Konnor Vohs 0-2 1-2 1. Totals: 24-69 13-17 68. 3-point field goals: 7, (Waldron 2, Margrave 2, W. Guetterman, Rolofson, B. Guetterman)

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