WAO Boys Basketball holds on for wire-to-wire victory over Stephen-Argyle

The Warren-Alvarado-Oslo Pony Boys Basketball team jumped out to a 13-2 lead and never looked back as they defeated the Stephen-Argyle Storm by a score of 62-54 in Warren on Thursday night.

FIRST HALF –
The first half could not have started much better for the Ponies, as they could not miss from beyond the arch. Specifically, Kyden Kotrba, who hit three deep shots in the first 5 minutes as part of a 13-2 run to open the half. The Storm began to get some more things going, getting big layups from Raydon Woinarowicz and Shay Setterholm, but each time the Ponies had an answer. Kotrba hit his 4th 3-pointer, and Sidney Carlson hit one from off the bench to give the Ponies a 23-12 lead. The Ponies hit their largest lead of 12, at 28-16 with 5:19 remaining, but after they hit that number, the Storm held them scoreless for over 4 minutes. However, the Storm could only score 3 points in that span, making it 28-19. In the final minute, the Storm cut the deficit to 6 at 29-23. However, with 10 seconds left, Sidney Carlson hit his 2nd 3-pointer of the game, and that allowed the Ponies to take a 32-23 lead into the half.

SECOND HALF –
Each team scored one bucket in the first 2:13 of the half, making the score 34-25. Then, after Anders Thompson hit a 3-pointer, back-to-back turnovers on the inbounds pass led to two Raydon Woinarowicz layups, and all of a sudden the game was down to 34-32. The teams would then alternate points until it was 38-36, and that’s when the Ponies scored 5, capped off by a Noah Sedlacek 3-pointer to give WAO a 43-36 lead. Stephen-Argyle had another answer, however, and brought the lead back to 45-43. However, that seemed to be all the Storm had in the tank. With under 6 minutes left, the Ponies pulled off a 7-0 run, capped off by the 5th Kyden Kotrba 3-pointer of the game, putting the Ponies up 54-45. This lead would end up being insurmountable for the Storm. Their attempt at a late run proved futile, and the Ponies held on for a 62-54 wire-to-wire victory.

WAO improves to 8-9 on the year. Stephen-Argyle is now 9-6 on the year.