The test you're describing sounds more like the WIAT-III than the TOWL-4, if that's most of what he did. In any case, the appropriate prompt to those types of responses is to request that the child write another sentence, using the word in a different (more meaningful) way. If that was not done, then the score is invalid anyway, and any points deducted or not deducted are irrelevant.

...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...