ALMA- The Arapahoe Warriors hit the road to Alma to take on the Cardinals in the last matchup of the regular season and handed Alma a loss on their home floor, 46-41.
Both teams came into the contest on the heels of losses a week ago. With Arapahoe falling to Bertrand 47-40 for their second consecutive loss, while Alma was coming off a 57-55 loss at Cambridge last Friday.
Arapahoe was trying to fight off another end of season skid like they had last season, where they lost six consecutive games, while Alma was trying to avoid their first consecutive losses of the year.
Records and classes were ignored in this matchup, as the teams exchanged blows throughout the opening period, with Alma eventually taking the lead at the end of the first, 11-9.
The Warriors scraped their way back into the contest in the second, but neither team was keen to take a lead for long, leaving most of the second knotted up. However, Arapahoe got a running jumper from Chris Hermes at the end of the half to make it 18-16 at the break.
Arapahoe began to pull away in the third, outscoring the Cardinals 12-9 to end the period with a 30-25 advantage.
In the final frame, Alma would get a stellar performance from Zavier Mitchell, using all his 6’2” frame and vertical to get over the top of his defenders on right side alley oop passes that he laid up and off the glass for a total of eight fourth quarter points.
However, Arapahoe was able to keep the scoring level by answering with a well distributed attack from Trenton Roskop, Kade Fisher and Will Cacy, as they combined to match Alma’s 16 fourth quarter points and seal the victory for the Warriors, 46-41.
Arapahoe was led by Fisher with his second consecutive 19-point night. Roskop had 13 as the other double-digit Warrior while Cacy (6), Carl Nordine (4) and Chris Hermes and Eli Shafer (2) rounded out the total for Arapahoe.
Alma was paced by Mitchell and his 17 points while Jakin Neal (8), Isaiah Neal (7), Tucker Biskop and Grady Faimon (4) and Titus Epp (1) all contributed to the total for the Cardinals.
Alma (17-5) ends the regular season on a two-game skid and will take on Perkins County on Tuesday in the C2-11 subdistrict at Amherst as the No. 3 seed at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, Arapahoe (12-12) gets back to .500 and will take on Bertrand in the play in game in the D1-9 subdistrict in Loomis as the No. 5 seed on Monday at 6 p.m.
Listen to the game here.
