Stephen-Argyle Girls Basketball take down Northern Freeze in 8A Tournament

The #8 seed Stephen-Argyle Storm Girls Basketball team controlled the game on both ends of the floor en route to a 69-43 victory over the #9 seed Northern Freeze in the play-in round of the Section 8A Tournament played in Argyle.

FIRST HALF
The game started slowly, with the Storm taking a 4-0 lead with three minutes gone by, and the next point didn’t come until there was 12:38 to go in the half, when the Freeze got on the board. Jocelyn Groven and Annika Adolphson each hit free throws to help the Storm pull ahead to a 12-6 lead, but the Freeze were clinging on. Faith Efta and Isabella Gerardy were the only point scorers in the entire half for the Freeze, but together they fought back, cutting the Storm lead to 16-14 with 8:44 to go. Stephen-Argyle began to get hot, though, especially from the foul line, where they were 12-of-16 in the half. That, combined with a couple of Groven three-pointers, put the Storm on a 14-4 run to go up 30-18. The run then ballooned to 19-6, as the Storm pulled ahead to a 35-20 lead. Gerardy hit a long-distance 3 in the final seconds to bring the gap down, but the Storm still led by 12 at the break.

SECOND HALF
The second half saw the Northern Freeze finally get some secondary scoring in the first few minutes, with Shylo Edin and Taylor Knutsen sparking a 9-3 start to the half, cutting the score to 38-32. However, that would be the last spurt of offense the Freeze would get, as the Storm began to take control. After Taylor Knutsen recorded her fourth foul, Ayla Woinarowicz and the Storm pounded the ball inside to take a 48-36 lead. From there, Jocelyn Groven hit two more three-pointers to boost the lead all the way to 58-38. The Storm then scored 11 of the last 16 points of the game, and cruised to a 69-43 win.

Stephen-Argyle improves to 8-17 on the season and will play Sacred Heart at 6 PM on Thursday at UMC. The Freeze ended their season with a 4-22 record.