Tuesday night's final score -- Little Rock Parkview 38, Little Rock Hall 26 -- looked more like a halftime score at Hall's Cirks Arena.
No matter, it was a victory just the same to Parkview Coach Scotty Thurman.
"We just wanted to come in and get a win by any means necessary," Thurman said.
Parkview (8-2, 2-1 5A Central), coming off an 85-80 loss to Maumelle last Friday, never got a chance to run up and down the court against a Little Rock Hall team that had been in quarantine, hadn't played in 10 days and only practiced for four days leading up to Tuesday night's game.
That contributed to Hall Coach Jon Coleman's decision to hold the ball at the start of the third quarter with Parkview playing a zone.
Hall's Brock Wesley held the ball just inside the midcourt line, and Parkview, which came out in a zone to force Hall to shoot from the outside, didn't budge for the first 7:52 of the third quarter.
"We didn't want the roof to get blown off," Coleman said of his Warriors (2-4, 0-1). "All in all, you always want to win, but at the same time you take the positives and you build on it."
The way Coleman saw it, Parkview -- which held a 27-19 halftime lead -- chose to stay in its zone as much as Hall chose not to attack.
"They just kind of wanted us to play against the zone," Coleman said. "We really wanted to play against man. If they had come out and guarded us, we would have played. So it goes both ways."
Thurman said he saw no reason to ask his team, dealing with injuries, to chase the Warriors.
"I can't control the way they play," Thurman said of Hall. "We got what we came to do. My kids came ready to play. ... I just didn't think it made much sense, with us with the lead to be chasing these guys all over the floor.
"They hadn't many jump shots all night, so we were just going to sit back and watch them shoot them."
It turned out that Parkview just watched Hall hold the ball until Wesley attacked the lane with about 10 seconds to play in the third quarter.
His shot missed, and Parkview had a turnover on its one brief possession of the third quarter.
"I'm excited about the win," Thurman said. "I would have preferred it being a normal basketball game. But what can I do?"
Said Coleman: "We're already limited in numbers, so we're not going to go out and run up and down. So our goal was to try to control the tempo.
Play resumed in the fourth quarter with Parkview in possession to start, and the Patriots extended the lead.
Parkview's Jaylen Thomas Mallett hit two free throws and his fourth three-pointer of the game in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, and the Patriots led 33-19.
Mallett finished with 14 points for Parkview, and Cameron Wallace added 11 points and seven rebounds.
"He's got a chance to be a real good player," Thurman said of Wallace. "One of those guys who came up as a post player and we're trying to convert him into a big-time wing. He's definitely got some athletic ability."
Jamaal Summons, a transfer from Parkview, led Hall with 10 points, all in the first half. He also had seven rebounds.
"He was out there trying to play hard against his buddies," Coleman said. "All in all, we've got some improvement to do. But at the same time, I saw some positives as well.
"Our thing is just to try and get better to get ready for the conference tournament. It's all going to boil down to the conference tournament."
The same is true for the Patriots, Thurman said.
"I like this group; they're learning on the fly a little bit," Thurman said. "They're doing some things not so well, doing some things well. We're just trying to keep building."