UNIONTOWN – It was a hard-fought battle, but the Altoona-Midway High School boys came up a little short in their attempt to push its winning streak to four games here Friday night.
The rugged Uniontown Eagles put a stop to the Jets’ winning streak, posting a 54-40 win in a key Three Rivers League matchup.
In the girls’ game, the Lady Jets were unable to match up with a tall, talented Uniontown squad as the host team posted a 59-8 triumph.
The Altoona-Midway squads are scheduled to host the second annual Captain Milburn G. Apt Memorial Basketball Tournament. Four games each are slated Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at Milo Peterson Gymnasium. Other squads competing include Chetopa High School, Tyro Christian Academy, and Liberty Home School Alliance.
AMHS Boys
In a rough-and-tumble contest that sometimes resembled football more than basketball, the Uniontown Eagles muscled their way to a hotly-contested 54-40 conquest of the Altoona-Midway boys.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak – all in league play – for the surging Jets. Prior to Friday’s contest, AMHS had won four of its previous five games.
Altoona-Midway suffered its first loss in Three Rivers League action. The Jets are now 5-4 overall and 3-1 in conference play.
“This was a hard-fought game from the get-go,” said AMHS head coach Dave Vance. “I am disappointed in the loss, but not in the way we played. Uniontown was big, strong and tough, but we stood our ground and matched their aggressiveness. We just couldn’t manage to make enough of our shots to take the lead at any point, but our defensive effort was great.”
Both teams were cold in the first half, primarily due to both teams playing robust, physical defense. Uniontown managed a 19-15 lead at intermission.
In the third quarter, the Eagles’ Colter Powell canned a pair of three-pointers to put Uniontown up 29-20. The Jets battled back to within four, 33-29, but another surge put the home team up 39-29 after three periods.
Altoona-Midway got within seven (45-38) with a little over three minutes remaining, but were then forced to foul. The Eagles hit their free throws down the stretch to put the finishing touches on the 54-40 victory.
“Once again, we fouled a little too much, as Uniontown shot twice as many free throws as we did,” Vance said. (Uniontown finished 18-for-29 from the line, while AMHS was 9-of-14.) “But we were very aggressive, and I’m proud of our boys for playing hard. We also committed three charging files that could’ve went either way.
“One thing going around right now is implementing a shot clock next season. I don’t really feel that we need one, as there is very seldom that much time between shots,” Vance added, “But I would like to see the half-circle underneath each basket where players cannot stand to draw a charging foul after the play is completed. With the amount of flopping going on in today’s game, I feel that needs to be more strongly addressed.”
Altoona-Midway placed three players in double figures, with Jacob Meigs leading the way with 14 points, including 8-of-11 from the line. William Stackhouse and Kieran Foster also found the range for 12 and 11 points, respectively. Rounding out the scoring for AMHS was Blaine Collins with three.
Powell finished with a game-high 25 points for Uniontown, with 21 of those coming in the second half. Brycen Stewart contributed 15 points. The two Eagles combined to go 16-of-21 from the free-throw line.
Stackhouse collected seven rebounds for the Jets while Meigs grabbed four and Kage Beck and Lane Poeverlein notched three apiece.
“Our rebounding numbers weren’t as high as usual. Uniontown had some very husky boys and crashed the boards relentlessly. We couldn’t block them out well enough to keep them off the boards,” Vance noted. “Another factor in this game was that we went from being the hunters to being the hunted. With our recent success, Uniontown was really fired up to try and achieve a victory,” the coach pointed out. “I expect it to be like that the rest of the season, but I expect us to come out on top more than on the bottom. The boys have greatly improved, and we will see more positive results the rest of the season.”
Uniontown also came out on top 27-19 in a two-quarter boys’ junior varsity matchup.
AMHS Girls
Uniontown jumped out to an early 21-2 lead after one quarter of the girls’ contest, and things remained one-sided the rest of the way as the Lady Eagles notched the 59-8 league victory.
The AMHS girls now stand 1-7 overall and 0-3 in TRL play.
We were simply out-matched in this one,” said AMHS girls’ head coach Jessica Porter. “Uniontown is a good team, and they had so many tall girls!
The host squad netted the first 10 points of the game before senior Ava Hufford connected from the side to put AMHS on the board. Unfortunately, the Eagles then went on a 26-0 run to make the score 36-2 at halftime.
Finding the silver lining, Porter noted, “I was very proud of the fact that we broke the press almost every time. Last year we were not able to do that. We also took some good shots, and played pretty good defense.
“I’d just like to know where all of these other schools come up with all these tall girls,” Porter joked.
Hufford hit another bucket to finish the game with four points, sharing team-high scoring honors with Emmalynn Pupanek, who also netted four points.
Uniontown got five three-pointers from Reece Gorman, who tallied a game-high 21 points, while Addisyn Hall controlled the inside and added 19 points to the cause.
In a two-quarter jayvee game, Uniontown won 29-3. Jasa Pankaskie tallied two points and Mika Parsons hit a free throw for AMHS.