Iowa won a share of the District 4-3A championship and head coach Robert Melanson got his 700th career win Tuesday night as Yellow Jackets rallied from a first-half deficit to beat Lake Charles College Prep 53-38 on the road.

“That is a strain,” Melanson said. “(LCCP) had a lot to do with it.

“We didn’t play our best game tonight, but credit them. They outhustled us on a lot of loose balls, and they played that zone defense. We just didn’t adjust to it as well as we should have.”

Melanson credited the many outstanding players he has coached during his career to get to the 700-win mark.

“That means I had a lot of good ballplayers that have come through,” Melanson said. “It ain’t me, it is them. I just ask them to play hard.

“I coach the game hard and ask them to play hard.”

Curtis Deville led Iowa with 15 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. Desamonte Gradney added 12 points and Deshawn Ceasar finished with 10 as the Yellow Jackets won their 12th consecutive game.

Prep (15-10, 3-4) controlled the first half, leading by as many as eight points and led 27-21 at the break, but Iowa asserted itself with its defense in the third quarter. Iowa (21-4, 7-0) held the Trailblazers scoreless for almost 6 minutes and opened with a 12-0 run.

“We settled down and we started hitting the middle, hitting the open spot in the middle,” Melanson said. “And the defense picked it up a little bit.

“Go flash the middle, it was open. We were doing that. We were living and dying by the 3 in the first half, and we made two of them, and that was it. Too many loose balls we didn’t get.”

Jhaylen Moss tied the score at 27-27 with a pair of free throws with 6:45 left in the third quarter, and Crajaun Bennett’s third 3-pointer gave the Yellow Jackets their first lead since early in the first quarter.

Prep pulled within 33-30 on a 3 by Martin Young, but Iowa finished the quarter on a 15-3 run to pull away.

Iowa led 6-2 after a pair of three from Bennett with 4:31 left in the first quarter. Young’s 3 gave the Trailblazers their first lead, 8-6.

Iowa tied the score twice before Josiah Bushnell nailed a 3 from the top of the arc to close out the opening quarter and put Prep up 13-10.

Bushnell led Prep with 11 points.

Iowa can win the district championship outright with a victory at home Friday night against St. Louis.