ST. PAUL – The Altoona-Midway High School boys’ basketball team started its three-game road trip in fine fashion, snapping a two-game losing streak by defeating the St. Paul Indians 57-45 in a Three Rivers League contest here Tuesday night.
Unfortunately, the Lady Jets were unable make it a sweep for AMHS, as St. Paul posted a 52-17 victory in the girls’ matchup.
The Altoona-Midway squads will make the middle stop on their trio of consecutive bus expeditions on Friday, Feb. 2, when they travel to Arma for TRL clashes with Northeast High School. AMHS will also square off against Southern Coffey County on Tuesday, Feb. 6 at Leroy.
AMHS BOYS
Other than the opening few possessions, Altoona-Midway led throughout Tuesday’s contest – much of the time by double digits – but could never quite deliver the knockout blow against the Indians until the final minutes.
The Jets took a 45-30 advantage into the final period, but St. Paul rallied on three occasions to cut the lead to seven (the last time at 52-45). But AMHS hit six free throws down the stretch – four of them by junior Kieran Foster – to finish off the 57-45 victory.
The win snapped a two-game skid for the Jets, who are now 9-6 overall and 4-3 in TRL play.
“It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it was a victory,” said Altoona-Midway head coach Dave Vance. “Our play was pretty sporadic throughout the entire game with some good moments and some bad moments. We did manage to outscore Saint Paul in each of the first three quarters, while they gained a little ground on us in the fourth quarter.”
St. Paul jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but four straight points by senior Blaine Collins righted the ship for Altoona-Midway, which led 14-7 at the quarter. The Jets increased their lead to 27-19 at halftime.
Zakary Kirkpatrick dominated the paint for St. Paul in the first half, pouring in 16 points. The Jets held Kirkpatrick to just six points after intermission, but the Indians kept the game interesting by virtue of hitting six three-point shots in the final two quarters, five of them by freshman Brec Norris, who finished with 18 points. The Indians other five points came from another freshman, Jackson Beachner – all in the fourth quarter.
We could not stop Number 34 (Kirkpatrick). In the middle, he was a giant obstacle, which we had no answer for,” Vance said. “We really packed in the defense in the second half, but then Saint Paul started putting in some three-pointers towards the end of the game and kept it close.”
William Stackhouse paced the Jet attack with 21 points, while Foster fired in 15 points, including three treys. Collins had seven important first-half points for AMHS, while Jacob Meigs also chipped in seven, Kage Beck tallied five, and Joey Lamendola added two.
“We had six guys getting into the scoring column, which was good. Blaine Collins had some good offensive rebounds and put backs on a few of our many misses,” Vance added. “Another positive note tonight would be our free throw shooting. William was 10-for-15 while Kieran was four-for-four.
Stackhouse also grabbed 15 rebounds and added five steals for Altoona-Midway, while Meigs and Beck pulled down six and four caroms, respectively.
“Now we have to prepare for a very tough game on Friday against Northeast on their home court in Arma,” the coach noted. “We will have to play much better than we did tonight to expect any success.”
AMHS GIRLS
The offensive woes continued for the Altoona-Midway girls. After being shut out the entire second half of their previous outing, the Lady Jets were blanked again in the opening quarter Tuesday, and never really got untracked as St. Paul pulled away for a 52-17 victory.
“I don’t know why we came out flat, but we definitely didn’t give it our all last night, especially in the first half,” said AMHS head coach Jessica Porter.
“I felt like we did show more effort in the second half, and Mika (Parsons) helped pick us up on offense,” the coach added. “I was happy with our 1-3-1 defense, and we were able to keep St. Paul’s outside shooters to only three 3’s in the whole game.”
The Lady Indians led 10-0 at the quarter and 30-8 at halftime. St. Paul increased its lead to 47-12 before each team tallied five points in the final period.
Emmalynn Pupanek was the leading scorer for AMHS with five points, by Ava Hufford and Miki Parsons netted four points apiece. Summer Raymond and Chantal Morales added two points each to round out the scoring for the Lady Jets.
Raymond led the rebounding department with eight boards, with Pupanek and Ava Tindle grabbing four each. Raymond also recorded three steals while Pupanek, Hufford, and Tindle notched two apiece.
Jorja Harris ran off the first eight points of the game for St. Paul and finished with 14, while freshman Kaydra Mathis took game-scoring honors with 16 points.
The Lady Jets fell to 0-6 in Three Rivers League play and now stand 3-11 in all contests.
St. Paul also came out on top 11-4 in a two-quarter junior varsity tilt. Mika Parsons and Brooklynn Collins each scored two points for AMHS.