Tonganoxie — Ugly spelled backwards is ylgu. Ugly spelled inside out is lgyu.
Ugly is still ugly, though, and that's what Tonganoxie's 41-36 boys basketball win over Perry-Lecompton was on Tuesday night.
"Yes it was," Tongie coach David Walker said, "but it was a good ugly win after what we did in our tournament."
What the Chieftains did in their tourney last weekend was drop successive games to Eudora and Bonner Springs, the latter an 81-46 blowout, after opening with a victory over Olathe Christian.
"In the past, we haven't played the week after the tournament," Walker said, "but this was good. When you fall off the bike, you need to start peddling again."
Neither the Chieftains (6-7) nor the Kaws (5-8), who played in the McLouth tourney last weekend, peddled very fast.
"We didn't play our best," said Bryan Gurss, a 6-foot-5 senior who led Tongie with 14 points. "We seemed dead in practice, but we knew we could beat them."
Perry-Lecompton coach Pat Hupfauf lamented his club's 31.1 percent (14 of 45) shooting against Tongie's zone.
"We had shots all night. We had open looks and we didn't shoot the ball," Hupfauf said. "Some of our guys weren't looking to shoot the three."
Walker used a zone because the Kaws' strength rests with inside players Shawn Howard and Jared Swafford. Howard (13 points) and Swafford (11) were the only Kaws to score in double figures.
Howard, a 6-foot-4 senior who leads his team in scoring and rebounding, did not play the last five minutes after he was whistled for a technical foul. If you play for the Kaws and receive a T, you're finished for the night.
"That's my rule," Hupfauf said. "It would have been nice to have Shawn, but there are more lessons to be learned down the road. It's a life lesson. He said something to a referee. It wasn't a curse word. It was a big play, but I love the kid to death and there were other big plays."
Tonganoxie 41, Perry 36
PERRY-LECOMPTON (36)
Jared Swafford 5 0-2 11, Shawn Howard 4 4-6 13, Aaron Spreer 1 0-0 2, Ryan Soden 2 0-0 5, Aaron Swaggerty 2 1-2 5. Totals 14 5-10 36.
TONGANOXIE (41)
Matt Alexander 1 3-4 5, Thomas Gilner 1 0-0 2, Bryan Gurss 5 4-5 14, Jon Gripka 1 0-2 2, Jacob Walker 3 1-1 7, Chad Turner 2 0-0 5, Jordan Glenn 2 0-0 4, Shane Howard 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 8-12 41.
Perry-Lecompton 11 12 4 9 36
Tonganoxie 15 8 8 11 41
Three-point goals Shawn Howard, Soden, Swafford, Turner. Total fouls Perry-Lecompton 9, Tonganoxie 6. Technical foul Shawn Howard.
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