No one saw this one coming.

Waterloo East was 1-21 last year.

The Trojans’ only two wins this year were against small school University High of Cedar Falls and Oelwein.

And they lost their first three Mississippi Valley Conference games by margins of 24, 49 and 26 points.

But the 58-50 whuppin’ laid on the Prairie boys Tuesday night was no fluke.

“It is what it is,” said an uncharacteristically glum Hawks Coach James Moses.  “They outplayed us in every phase of the game.

“What’s most disappointing is that we didn’t match their intensity from start to finish.”

For third-year Waterloo Coach Anthony Thomas the uncommon taste of victory couldn’t have been any sweeter.

“The guys played great tonight, and I’m very proud of them.

“It’s the first time this season we’ve gotten ahead of a good team. That gave us a little confidence. And we got more confident as the game went on.

“Really, this is the only game we’ve had this year where we played 32 minutes of good team basketball."

Prairie (4-4, 1-3 MVC) had played well and shot well all season, even in losses.  The Hawks did neither against the spunky but undersized Trojans.

Waterloo East starting guards Arkell Todd and Corshoundus Love are 5-foot-1 and 5-3, respectively, and no one’s taller than 6-3 on the East team.

They played their hearts out Tuesday night, even holding their own on the boards with the taller Hawks.

“Anytime you have a scrappy bunch like that that comes out ready to play, you’d better take them out of their game right away,” Moses said.  “We didn’t do that. We had too many turnovers and too many missed shots early on. We let them set the tone.

“I thought we were disoriented the whole night.”

In what was far too typical on this night, for instance, always-steady Prairie point guard Jace Hanna had a wide-open layup with 1:20 to go in the game with East ahead 52-44.

The ball trickled off the rim.

Thomas praised his plucky players for their hard-nosed defense. But he admitted that wasn’t the whole story.

“We knew Prairie has a very good shooting team," he said. "But sometimes the ball goes in, and sometimes the ball rims out.”

That’s mostly what happened in the first quarter, when the Hawks could muster only five points and trailed by six.  The Trojans  maintained the margin at halftime and came back after the break fired up.

“Keep workin’ the ball ‘til we get what we want,” exhorted Thomas, whose team is now 3-5 and 1-3 in MVC play.  That often meant getting the ball to sophomore sharpshooter Daeton Hoskins, who was playing his first game of the season after being academically ineligible.  He hit three 3-pointers in the second half and led his team with 22 points.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Thomas yelled when Hoskins nailed a long one with 4:10 to go to put Waterloo ahead 43-38. Prairie never got any closer and trailed 58-48 with 18 seconds left.

Leading Hawk scorer Matt MacDougall, who was both playing sick and celebrating his 18th birthday, hit the last of his 22 points for the night to finish the game.

“We had a lot of missed opportunities at the end,” Moses said. “And we didn't show enough patience on offense.

“But the fact is, we got beat in every single aspect tonight.”

WATERLOO EAST (58): Corshoundus Love 3 3-4 9, Terryon Hudley 5 0-0 12, Arkell Todd 1 3-6 5, Andrew McGrain 2 1-4 6, Daeton Hoskins 7 4-6 22, Octavious Evans 0 0-0 0, Jammone Culp 2 0-0 4, D.J. Jones 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 11-20 58.

PRAIRIE (50): Jacob Aune 4 0-1 8, Brooks Kehoe 2 0-0 4, Jace Hanna 2 2-4 7, Garrett Rasmussen 0 0-0 0, Tom Eilers 0 2-2 2, Matt MacDougall 7 7-15 22, Ty Mougin 1 1-2 3, Kentrel Smith 1 2-2 4, Bryce Meeker 0 0-0 0, Mitch Adams 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 14-26 50.

Halftime – Waterloo East 25, Prairie 19. 3-point goals – Waterloo East 7 (Hoskins 4, Hudley 2, McGrain), Prairie 2 (Hanna, MacDougall). Total fouls – Waterloo East 18, Prairie 17. Fouled out – none.