(Avoca) AHSTW won a 57-54 battle with Tri-Center Tuesday night in a big Western Iowa Conference boys game. The victory puts the Vikings in 2nd place outright in the Western Iowa Conference standings, one game back of 3rd ranked Treynor.
Neither team led by more than four points until the fourth quarter when Joey Cunningham started torching the nets from long range. The Viking senior had a pair of three’s and drew a charge in a critical stretch of the final frame. Tri-Center led 36-35 at the start of the fourth, but AHSTW scored the first seven points of the fourth to go up 42-36. Tri-Center battled back and tied the game at 43, before Cunningham’s heroics.
Upon gaining control in the middle stages of the fourth, AHSTW hit four of their next five free-throws to push the lead to as many as eight points. Tri-Center got a couple of late 3’s from Zach Elliott and Trent Kozeal to keep slight hope alive, but the comeback effort ran out of time.
The first three quarters were as tight as could be. The first half alone featured four ties and four lead changes. The largest lead either team had in the third quarter was when AHSTW went ahead 33-31 midway through the frame.
Tri-Center’s Ethan Alfers led all scorers with 15 points. Cunningham led AHSTW with 13. Sam Porter had 11 while Clayton Akers and Michael Mantell each scored 10. A combination of strong defense and foul trouble helped keep two of the conferences premier players-Leyton Nelson (TC) and Raydden Grobe (AHSTW)-below their scoring averages.
The game provided plenty of intensity and fan involvement as you’d expect in a rivalry matchup. These squads will meet again on February 11th in Neola. AHSTW goes to 9-1 overall and Tri-Center is 8-2.
