PAS boys fend off late WHS charge




 

 

On the back of a 17-6 run to close out the first half, the Pipestone Area boys’ basketball team cruised to a comfortable 66-53 Big South Conference victory Friday night in Pipestone.
Although the Arrows (9-10) obviously stretched their lead through scoring in bunches, it was their defense that paved the way.
“I thought we shared the ball extremely well, but the biggest thing was defensively we were very good,” Pipestone Area head coach Troy Bouman said. “We really frustrated them, did a good job getting out with high hands, and they had a tough time finding people who were open. They had open players, but we had good ball pressure. They’re a very young team, who will in time be very good just have a lot of sophomores playing right now, and we took advantage of that with the way we played with our size and length.”
It wasn’t necessarily steals that led to buckets at the other end, but rather the smothering defensive pressure Bouman spoke of that limited the Trojans to one look each trip down the floor.
In the offensive set, the Arrows located the open man inside via solidly set picks.
“We pounded the ball inside to different players throughout the game, set screens and moved the ball around,” Bouman said. “We’re
 

 

not standing around any more and going one-on-one, we’re setting a lot better screens, and they’re starting to look for the person setting those screens.”
Seniors Carson Onken and Joe Morgan picked-and-rolled their way to 15 and 10 points, respectively, while Tyl Woelber and Cooper Kanthak did most of their damage on the run dropping in an additional 12 and 11 points, respectively.
“We struggled a few games, where we didn’t shoot the ball very well, but we’re getting better shots now because of sharing the ball so well and we’re attacking the basket much better and finishing,” Bouman said.
The Arrows’ late first-half run offered the hosts a comfortable cushion to work with in the second, and PAS extended its advantage to 19 points (50-31) three minutes into the final stanza through Morgan, Onken and Justin Rops (nine points).
A Woelber runner combined with a pair of interior hoops by Onken, off slippery passes from the former and Kanthak, lifted the Arrows to a 56-33 lead with 11:22 to play.
The Trojans simply had no answer until they could square off against the Arrows’ second platoon.
The visitors made things interesting down the stretch, posting 17 unanswered points to whittle the Arrows’ lead to nine points (62-53) with 1:44 remaining.
The Arrow starters returned to the fray to close
 

 

out the tilt and claim the BSC victory.
Pipestone will return to action Friday when they visit Lennox, S.D for a non-conference match with the Orioles.

Worthington 29 24 53
PAS 42 24 66

Marshall 80, PAS 62
The Arrows had few answers for the Tigers’ Trey Lance and Zach Bloemker, especially in the second half, as the pair paced Marshall to a Big South Conference victory and a sweep of the home-and-away series with 19 points apiece Monday night in Marshall.
Weston Baker added 14 points to the Tigers’ total, while the Arrows’ scoring came nearly exclusively from Tyl Woelber (26 points).
Carson Onken finished with nine points for the Arrows, who trailed by just three markers at the break (31-28).

PAS 28 34 62
Marshall 31 49 80