HARTFORD – The Altoona-Midway Jets opened play for the 2023-24 basketball season with a doubleheader here Friday night against the Hartford Jaguars.
The host Hartford teams captured victories in both games. The Jags won the nightcap 55-46 after posting a 56-2 triumph in the girls’ contest to open the evening.
Both AMHS squads face a busy schedule in the upcoming week, as they will play three games apiece in the 2023 Valley Tip-Off Classic at Melvern. Games are scheduled for Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.
Tuesday’s schedule has Altoona-Midway and host Marias des Cygnes Valley squaring off twice, with the girls’ playing at 5 p.m. and boys’ contest slated for 7 p.m.
AMHS Boys
Altoona-Midway dug themselves a deep hole to open the game, battled back to within striking distance in the fourth quarter, but foul trouble – and the resulting free throws – ultimately provided the deciding margin as Hartford escaped with a 55-46 victory.
It was a fast and furious game, with both squads hustling and scrapping. Hartford led 8-3 at the quarter and 29-15 at halftime. But the Jets rallied to close within 45-40 midway in the fourth period. But AMHS lost three starters to fouls from that point on and the Jaguars survived to post the triumph, their second
in successive days.
“It was a tale of two halves. We had trouble getting it going in the first half, as we only scored 3 points in the first quarter and 12 in the second quarter,” said AMHS head coach Dave Vance. “I do believe having a game under their belt did gave Hartford an advantage. It took us a while to get untracked.
“We sent Hartford to the line 34 times and they connected on 23 of them,” Vance noted. “We went to the line 13 times and were successful only 7 times. You could connect the dots and say we lost the game at the line, and that could be fairly accurate.
Hartford outscored us by 16 at the line, and we lost the
game by 9 points.”
Joey Lamendola came off the bench to provide a big spark to the AMHS offense. The junior swished a 3- point for the only Jet points in the 1st quarter. Lamendola connected on two more 3-point shots in the 2nd quarter to go along with a steal and a layup. Lamendola finished with a team-high 14 points,
including four treys.
William Stackhouse and Kieran Foster fired in 12 points apiece for Altoona-Midway. The junior tandem each had two first-half points and tallied 10 points each after intermission. Senior Jacob Meigs scored all seven of his points during the second-half rally as well.
Keenan Renfrow and Coy Wilkinson did most of the damage for the Jaguars, scoring 22 and 18 points respectively. Nolin Trester added 11 for the winning cause.
In the rebounding department, Meigs had 12 caroms for AMHS, Stackhouse 10, Lane Poeverlein grabbed 6, Blaine Collins had 4, Kage Beck had 3, and Taj Chism added 2.
“For the first game of the season, the boys did a decent job,” Vance said. “After the slow start, we did win the 3rd and 4th quarters (16-12 and 15-14). “Our defense was respectable and we battled hard on the boards. Stackhouse, Meigs, and Beck led the defense. We have a lot of quickness … we just need to work on positioning and cutting down on the reaching fouls.
“These boys have the potential to have a good season,” he added. “If we can get everyone to pull together, play together, stay positive, and cut down on the fouls, we will have a good season.”
AMHS Girls
In the girls’ game, Hartford came out strong and never looked back as they rolled to a 56-2 victory. Altoona-Midway was without the services of one of their top players, returning starter Emmalynn Pupanek. And while the Lady Jets have 10 players on their roster this year – an increase over recent seasons – five of those are freshmen. Pupanek, who suffered an injury in practice last week, is expected back for next week’s tourney. “We had a lot of first game jitters and it really showed tonight,” said AMHS head coach Jessica Porter.
“But we know what we need to work on moving forward and will do our best to be ready for the game Tuesday.” Hartford jumped out to a 13-0 lead after one quarter. It was 28-2 at halftime and 42-2 at the end of three quarters, when the remainder of the game was played with a running clock. The Lady Jaguars placed three players in double figures. Keilee Finnerty led the way with 15 points, while Sydney Sull and Trinity Windle contributed 12 and 11 points, respectively. Summer Raymond canned a second-quarter field goal for the Lady Jets’ only basket.
“We did show some defensive strength several times and stopped them from scoring,” Porter noted. “Ava Hufford also tied the ball up a lot defensively.” Hufford and Chantal Morales each grabbed three rebounds for the Lady Jets, while Raymond and Jana Pankaskie hauled in two rejects apiece. Hufford had two steals while Raymond, Morales and Ava TIndle recorded one each.
Photo courtesy of Deb Meigs