sports

RILEY MOONEY’S BUZZER BEATER GIVES STEPHEN-ARGYLE THE WIN OVER WARREN-A-O

February 22, 2021

The Stephen-Argyle Storm used a Riley Mooney buzzer-beater to beat the Warren-Alvarado-Oslo Ponies 54-53 in a Section 8A matchup played in Warren.

Warren-Alvarado-Oslo has struggled to make shots in their last few games, but that wasn’t the case tonight as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead after a free throw from Gracie Anderson, a Pony steal leading to an Emily Pederson layup, and a Lilly Bayne three-pointer. “They came out with a lot of energy and we played like we had a game last night,” said Stephen-Argyle Coach Heidi Carlson. “We came out looking a little tired tonight.”
Stephen-Argyle stormed back with a 13-2 run behind nine points from Riley Mooney, and baskets from Casey Osowski and Josie Rivard for a 13-8 lead with 11 minutes left in the half. “Riley does a nice job for us and she knows when to turn it on for us,” said Coach Hanson.
The teams were tied at 14, 16, and 18 before the Ponies scored four straight points for a 22-18 lead. WAO had a 26-22 lead with 90 seconds left in the half before Stephen-Argyle’s Riley Mooney had a three-point play and on the next trip had a three-pointer and the Storm took a 28-26 lead into halftime. “That gave us a nice spark, but it was like Crookston all-over again,” said Storm Coach Carlson. “We were happy with the lead, but not happy with how we were playing.”

SECOND HALF-
The Ponies tied the game at 28 with an Elise Oberg basket. Over the next nine or ten minutes there were four lead changes and several ties, including a tie at 40 with 7:14 remaining. Stephen-Argyle took the lead with a Mooney offensive rebound and putback, which was followed by a Mooney steal and pass to Greta Weberg or a layup. After a WAO free throw, Casey Osowski made three free throws and with 5:47 left in the game, the Storm led 46-41. “Casey did a nice job for us, especially at the free-throw line,” said Storm Coach Carlson. “We were lucky to get the fouls called.”
Warren-Alvarado-Oslo had an answer as they called on their 5’11 senior Kylie Hanson who made two free throws and on the next possession made a shot in the paint. Annika Magnusson followed with a free throw and the Ponies trailed 47-46. The teams were tied at 50 and 52 and the Ponies took a 53-52 lead after a Lily Bayne free throw, for her 20th point of the game, with 44.1 seconds left in the game. Stephen-Argyle had the ball looking for the last shot and with 9.1 seconds left they called a time out. After the time out Weberg got the inbound pass and dribbled towards the top of the key and got a pass to Mooney on the sideline in front of the Storm bench. Mooney dribbled to her right and the defender fell to the floor and Mooney seemed to trip and got a shot off while falling to the ground and it banked off the backboard into the net before the buzzer sounded and Stephen-Argyle won the game 54-53. The basket gave Mooney 31 points in the game. “I don’t even think she knew where she was going with the shot. She was just praying it was going in,” said Storm Coach Carlson. “We can’t take anything away from the Ponies. They played hard and played until the end and our girls played scared for a while. It was an important game for us. We just need to play our game and we will learn from this game.”

Stephen-Argyle improves to 9-1 on the year and will play Red Lake County Central on Friday. Warren-Alvarado-Oslo drops to 6-5 on the year.
J.V. – Stephen-Argyle won 50-12.