ARGYLE — The Orioles have spent the entire season ranked in the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Top 10 in the girls Division 5 poll. But after an eye-opening loss to Belleville Jan. 14, Argyle players had seven days to ponder their response.

“That one hurt. It was an all-week type of thing where it just hurt a lot,” Orioles senior guard Kirsten Ostby said. “We learned from it, we took lessons from it and we’re moving on now.”

In their first game back in action, Argyle jumped out early on Potosi-Cassville and shut the door in the second half, winning 60-47 in a nonconference game Jan. 21.

“We knew it was going to be a big game, and we really wanted redemption for Belleville, because that really hurt,” senior forward Jena Saalsaa said.

The Orioles looked like a team on a mission in the first half. The full-court press and half-court trap flustered the Chieftains into nearly a dozen turnovers. Throw in six buckets from beyond the arc, and Argyle watched it’s lead grow from six to 10 to 19. By halftime, the Orioles (11-2) had forced Potosi (8-5) to burn three timeouts and led 37-23 — all against a zone defense.

“We were working on the little things. We were seeing a lot of open people,” Argyle head coach Nicole Allison said. “I told them to keep working it around and find those passes.”

Saalsaa scored 15 of her game-high 22 points in the opening frame — including connecting on three 3-pointers. 

“We just know that we’ll eat anyone alive with man. In zone, we just knew that we had to get it into the post. If they are doubling down there, they just kick it back out to us and we have driving lanes,” Saalsaa said.

Alysabeth Lantz also found her groove in the paint, scoring 10 points in the first 18 minutes and finishing with 18 in the game.

“I brought (my performance) up a lot,” Lantz said, adding that she was a little under the weather. “I wasn’t feeling well today, but by game time I was able to say to myself ‘OK, it’s time to buckle down and play with the team and get it going.’”

Kristen Ostby had a pair of 3s, but the senior guard’s biggest contribution was on defense. In one sequence in the opening minutes of the game, Ostby deflected a ball from the wing and then hustled to the sidelines, tip-toeing the line to gain possession. Seconds later, Jadyn Saalsaa found Lantz in the paint for a bucket.

“We worked really hard after our loss to Belleville, fine-tuning some things and putting on pressure,” Allison said.

Even though Potosi went on a 10-4 run to close out the first half, the momentum always felt to be in Argyle’s favor. Lantz opened up the second half with a basket in the paint, but then the Orioles offense went cold.

The Chieftains strung off a slow 6-0 run that changed the vibe in the gymnasium — mostly because Argyle came up empty on offense and appeared to lack energy at both ends of the floor for nearly five minutes of action.

Allison called a much-needed timeout with 13:50 left and with Potosi’s Anna Kartman about to step up to the free throw line.

“She mainly told us to get our heads in it and to get it going, otherwise we weren’t going to pull it through,” Lantz said.

Kartman made one of two freebies, but otherwise the quick stoppage of play by Allison worked to perfection. Argyle took back control of the momentum with an 8-point burst over the next two minutes to go back up by 18 at 47-29. 

First, Jena Saalsaa was fouled on a putback on Argyle’s next possession and hit one of two free throws. Then on the following defensive possession, Mackenzee Granberg blocked a jump shot and picked up an assist at the other end of the court on a 3 by Tori Lantz. The run was capped by Alysabeth Lantz, who stole a skip pass in the lane and went coast-to-coast for the bucket.

“Those blocks get us pumped up,” Jena Saalsaa said.

Potosi would never again threaten to bring its deficit back to single digits again.

“The first thing I said to them (in the timeout) was ‘This is not how we play basketball. I need some intensity out of you guys — you are my senior leaders. Let’s go,’” Allison said. “And they responded really well. I’ve got a great group of kids — they’ve been with me for a long time so they know my style and can tell when I’m upset with them. They bounced back and performed.”

Ostby finished with 11 points and Tori Lantz had seven for Argyle. Justice Udelhofen led Potosi with 12 points and Kartman finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Argyle, now ranked sixth in the WisSports.net Coaches Poll and 10th in the Associated Press poll, was getting ready to face its toughest challenge of the season yet — the second conference matchup with unbeaten and top-ranked Black Hawk (15-0) scheduled for Jan. 24.

Immediately after the game, Alysabeth Lantz was optimistic about what lies ahead.

“One more practice and I think we can do Black Hawk,” she said. However, recent snowfalls cancelled both practices prior to the scheduled game. The Orioles were still going in as confident as they could be.

“If we play like we did the first half tonight, I’ve got a lot of hope,” Allison said. “The kids really want it. It’s just taking that old mindset of ‘we’re beat by Black Hawk the moment we walk in the door’ and getting that stigma out of their heads. We’ve got to move forward and play the game the way we knew how.”