WAO Girls Basketball uses stifling defense to defeat Stephen-Argyle

The Warren-Alvarado-Oslo Ponies Girls Basketball team added another great win to their amazing season as their defense dominated, leading to a 64-39 victory over the Stephen-Argyle Storm in Warren on Thursday night.

FIRST HALF
The game started with both teams turning the ball over on their first possession, but then the Ponies were first to score on a bucket from Markelle Peterson. The Storm played tough to start, keeping the game tied at 4 with 13:51 to go in the half. However, from there, WAO began to slowly pull away. A 3-pointer from 8th grader Meila Pierce made the lead 11-6, and from there the Ponies put together an 8-2 run, turning over the Storm 4 times in that span to take a 19-8 lead. The Ponies began to implement their signature press defense, and this allowed them to only allow 10 points in the final 9 minutes of the half, including zero 3-pointers in the entire half. After the Storm cut the lead to 9 on two free throws from Ayla Woinarowicz, at 23-14, the Ponies ended the half on an 11-4 run, including a 3-pointer from Macey Boe and three steals from Markelle Peterson. Overall, the Ponies recorded 11 steals in the half, and this allowed them to take a 34-18 lead into the locker room for halftime.

SECOND HALF
The second half started with a much slower pace, as neither team scored in the first 2 minutes. However, for the next 6 minutes exactly, the Ponies played their best basketball of the game. Macey Boe hit three 3-pointers in a row, Markelle Peterson added two more steals and Kenley Marquis hit another three, and this allowed the Ponies to pull away, going on a 20-6 run to take a 54-24 lead with exactly 10 minutes to go in the game. The lead would not get any bigger than that, as the Ponies would proceed to go nearly 4 minutes without scoring again, but the Pony defense held the Storm to 7 points in that span, with 2 layups and 3 free throws. For the final 6 minutes of the game, the Storm kept pace with the Ponies, but the defense was just too much, and the Ponies held off the Storm for a 64-39 victory.

WAO is now 13-3 on the season, while Stephen-Argyle is now 4-12.
JV – WAO won 58-51