Stephen-Argyle Storm uses dynamite defense take down KCC in Section 8A Boys Basketball playoffs

The Stephen-Argyle Storm held the Kittson County Central Bearcats to under 25 points in each half en route to a 63-46 victory at NCTC in Thief River Falls in the Section 8A Tournament.

FIRST HALF –
The pace was slow on a scoring front in the first five minutes, with both teams struggling to find the bottom of the net. With 10:02 remaining, the Storm had an 11-8 lead, with five of those points coming from the foul line. From there, the offense began to pick up consistently for the Storm. Anders Thompson was the catalyst for this, as he became unconscious from behind the arch. He made three shots from outside as part of a 16-5 run, putting the Storm up 27-13. Their lead would not get higher than that, though, as Kellen Johnson and Ashton Knutson each rose up and hit threes to cut the lead down. They got it down to 30-19 before Thompson made yet another three-pointer to increase the lead. With 19 seconds to go, Dylan Widner hit a three-pointer to put the Storm up 16, but Eli Peterson answered with a layup at the buzzer, cutting the Storm lead to 38-24 at the half.

SECOND HALF –
The second half arguably started even slower than the first, with each team only scoring 2 points with 13:44 to go, making it 40-26 Storm. Stephen-Argyle got the next four points on a layup by Raydon Woinarowicz and a dunk from Caden Pagnac, but then the Bearcats got hot from three, getting two from James Cerkowniak and an ankle-breaker from Kellen Johnson to cut the lead down to 44-35. Stephen-Argyle called a timeout, and they were able to find an answer, with the Widner boys of Owen and Dylan continuing to hit shots to build the lead back. KCC cut the lead down to 48-40 with six minutes to go, but Thompson hit his fifth three-pointer of the game to cap off a 7-0 run, putting the Storm back up 15 at 55-40. The Storm got the lead to 59-42 before both teams emptied the bench, and the Storm were able to maintain their 17-point lead with a 63-46 victory.

Stephen-Argyle improves to 22-6 on the year and will take on Clearbrook-Gonvick on Saturday at 5:15. KCC’s season ends at 13-10, and they say goodbye to two seniors Brody and Brock Scalese.