MELVERN – It wasn’t pretty, but the Altoona-Midway High School boys advanced to the
semifinals of the 2023 Valley Tip-Off Classic, squeezing past host Marais des Cygnes Valley 41- 35 in a first-round matchup here Tuesday night. Meanwhile, the Lady Jets had a much-improved outing over their season-opener, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 56-24 to host MDCV in an opening-round contest of the girls’ classic bracket.
Both teams are back in action Friday and Saturday at the Tip-Off Classic. Friday night, AMHS
boys will take on Northeast Kansas Homeschool at 7 p.m. in a semifinal matchup. The Lady
Jets square off against Peabody-Burns at 5 p.m. in a consolation battle. The girls’ contest will be
held at the elementary school in Quenemo. Game times and opponents Saturday will depend on the outcome of Friday’s games.
AMHS Boys
In a see-saw battle throughout all four quarters, the Altoona-Midway boys were able to hold off
Marais des Cygnes Valley and post a 41-35 victory. The win evened the Jets’ season record at 1-1 and advanced them to the semifinals of the Classic. “We feel very fortunate to come out on top of this game,” said AMHS head coach Dave Vance. “It wasn’t one of our best games, but it was enough to get by.” The Trojans jumped to an 11-7 lead after one quarter. Altoona-Midway held a slim 21-19 halftime advantage, and increased their lead to 33-26 entering the final stanza.
AMHS led 38-35 with 34 seconds left, then held on despite only hitting just 3-of-10 free throws
to close things out. MDCV was hit with two technical fouls during the wild finish. The Jets were just 5-of-13 from the line in the fourth quarter, and hit just 8-of-18 for the game. AMHS was also 4-for-24 from behind the three-point line. “We also committed 17 turnovers and 24 fouls; both of those numbers are excessive,” Vance noted. “It’s difficult to put a very positive spin on this game. Our shooting was not good, no matter where we shot from.” Fortunately, the Trojans were also cold, connecting on just 9-of-20 free throw attempts.
“On the plus side, we rebounded the ball well, and had quite a few steals,” Vance continued. “It’s
good to escape with a win, but we will need to play much better as we go forward. We need to
play more as a team, as the stat sheet had us only credited with two assists on the night.”
William Stackhouse was the leading scorer for the Jets, netting 13 points in the second half to
finish with 17 on the night. Kieran Foster tossed in 10 points in the opening half and finished
with 13 points. Lane Poeverlein chipped in with seven points for AMHS, while Jacob Meigs and Blaine Collins netted two points apiece.
The stat sheet had Stackhouse hauling down 14 rebounds, Meigs 11 and Kage Beck six.
Stackhouse and Meigs were also credited with five and four steals, respectively.
Dalton Lingenfelter tossed in 10 points for MDCV, while Landon Reed finished with nine points,
included 6-of-6 from the line. Landon Traver chipped in with seven points and Mason Rose
netted five. “We had good effort for the night, we just did not play very smart,” Vance said. “We’ve got a lot to improve on, and (with more four games scheduled over an 8-day span) we better get busy.”
AMHS Girls
The Altoona-Midway girls’ squad had a much-improved performance over the season-opening
loss at Hartford when they managed just two points, but it wasn’t enough as a tall, talented
Marais des Cygnes Valley team posted a 56-24 triumph.
“We did a much better job this game,” said AMHS girls’ coach Jessica Porter. “We ran offense,
and played great defense. We did give up 12 points on missed free throws, so that’s definitely
something we need to work on. “But I’m proud of the way we played, and our attitude throughout the game was much better than the last game,” Porter added. Altoona-Midway had an excellent first quarter, trailing just 9-5 after one period despite missing on some good looks from the field. But Marais des Cygnes had a much taller lineup than the Lady Jets, and used that to their advantage the rest of the way.
The Trojans were very aggressive in the second quarter and led 33-8 at halftime. MDCV
extended the lead by three points in each of the final two periods. “We pretty much stayed right with them in the first quarter,” Porter said. “But they got very aggressive in the second period and we had problems turning the ball over. Still, there were several bright spots we could take away from this game.”
Emmalynn Pupanek, who sat out the season-opener due to injury, tallied a dozen points to pace
the Jet offense in her first outing of the year. AMHS also benefitted from an eight-point
performance from Ava Hufford. Rounding out the scoring for Altoona-Midway were Summer Raymond and Chantal Morales with two points apiece. Ava Tindle led the Jets with eight rebounds, while Pupanek grabbed six caroms. Raymond was credited with six assists on the night. Marais des Cygnes Valley placed three players in double figures. Akyra Traver finished with 13 points, Haylea Bethell scored 12 and Gracen Stahl added 10.