CHEROKEE – After suffering through perhaps it’s worst three periods of basketball of the entire season here Tuesday night, the Altoona-Midway boys’ basketball team nearly pulled off a fourth-quarter rally for the ages.
Trailing Southeast High School by 20 points with just over five minutes remaining, the never-say-die Jets battled back to within six points with 40 seconds still showing on the clock, but were unable to complete the improbable comeback as the Lancers hung on for a 60-54 Three Rivers League victory.
In the girls’ contest, Southeast roared to a massive first-quarter advantage and breezed past the Lady Jets 69-12.
The Altoona-Midway squads will lick their wounds and return home Friday night to the friendly confines of Milo Peterson Gymnasium when they host Pleasanton in another TRL matchup.
AMHS BOYS
Altoona-Midway entered Tuesday’s battle with Southeast on a hot streak, but unfortunately was cold as ice for much of the contest.
After leading by 13 points at halftime and 19 at the end of three quarters, the Lancers enjoyed a seemingly insurmountable 56-36 bulge with under six minutes remaining. But instead of rolling over, the Jets outscored their counterparts 18-4 for the remainder of the game.
A three-pointer by Jacob Meigs closed the gap to 60-54 with over half a minute still remaining, but that was as close as AMHS could get. The Lancers survived and snapped the Jets’ three-game winning streak.
Altoona-Midway, now 3-2 in TRL play and 8-5 overall, had won six of its last seven outings prior to Tuesday.
“We dug ourselves a hole at the beginning, and really didn’t recover until the fourth quarter. We closed the gap to four after trailing by 20, but that’s as close as we could get,” noted AMHS head coach Dave Vance.
“We are really proud of the boys for the way they battled, and we were battling a lot of elements tonight,” Vance added. “With one player staying home sick, another getting sick at halftime and leaving, and three others that were playing through their illnesses, it took a lot of determination for the team to even stay in the game.”
William Stackhouse led Altoona-Midway offensively with 28 points while Meigs finished with 12. The Jets also got seven points from Kieran Foster, five from Blaine Collins, and two from Kage Beck.
But the Jets missed several shots in the lane and were only 15-of-32 from the charity stripe.
“We obviously had some issues at the free-throw line. Putting a few more of those in the bucket would have helped close the gap,” Vance said. “But overall, I have to give the guys credit for battling hard against so many things going against them. They never gave up.”
Southeast’s Andrew Phillips poured in 28 points, including 18 in the first half, to share game-high scoring honors with Stackhouse. The Lancers also got 12 points from Tyler Warner.
AMHS GIRLS
Using an aggressive pressure defense and a fast-breaking offense, Southeast High School’s girls rolled past Altoona-Midway 69-12 in the earlier contest.
The Lady Lancers streaked to a 33-0 lead after just one period of play.
AMHS trailed 35-0 before Chantal Morales hit a follow shot to break the ice for AMHS. The Lancers went on to make it 45-8 at intermission. The teams used a running clock from that point forward.
“(Southeast) is a great team. We have to give them all the credit,” said Altoona-Midway girls’ coach Jessica Porter. “They outmatched us in every way possible. But I was proud that we hung in there and didn’t give up, and we even made a couple good plays at the end of the game.”
Ava Hufford tallied six points to pace Altoona-Midway, while Summer Raymond finished with four points and Morales added two.
Ten different players found the scoring column for Southeast, led by Eliz White, who netted 11 in the first period and finished with 18.
The Lady Jets, who had won two of their last three games entering Tuesday’s contest, fell to 3-9 overall and 0-4 in conference action.