BUFFALO – The Oswego Middle School rode into Milo Peterson Gymnasium and came away with a convincing 44-6 victory over the Altoona-Midway Jets in Mineral Belt League action here Thursday, Dec.11.
AMMS dropped to 1-2 overall on the year with the loss. The Jets were slated to host Liberty Homeschool Alliance Monday afternoon. The middle school squad will close out the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule Thursday, traveling to Bartlett.
“It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t the game we wanted, but maybe it was the game we needed,
said AMMS coach David Batzer. “We once again struggled to break the press, and that made it hard to even get into our offense. You can’t score if you don’t shoot, and it’s tough to shoot when you can’t get the ball across half-court. At one point in the second quarter, we had four straight turnovers on inbounds plays that led to easy buckets.”
Oswego led 11-2 after one period and then exploded to a 33-6 halftime advantage. It was 44-6 at the end of both the third and fourth quarters, as AMMS was unable to score in the second half.
Thaddeus Tindle scored four points and Alex Lockhart two for Altoona-Midway.
Tindle also claimed 11 rebounds for the Jets, while Jeffrey Nelson hauled down three and Hunter Reaves grabbed two steals.
Eric Martin poured in 22 points for Oswego to lead all scorers.
“Thaddeus continues to be consistent on the boards with another double-digit rebounding effort. He’s still learning to play with more physicality, but when that clicks, he’s going to be a really good player for us,” Batzer said.
“I told the team we can either let this game define us, or we can let it define who we become,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of growth left in us, and I’m hopeful this ends up being our low point of the season and that we get better from here.”
“Even though we didn’t score in the second half, I thought we were better offensively. For the first time all year, we ran the offense correctly, which led to wide-open looks. The shots just didn’t fall, and that’s okay - they will.”
Oswego also posted a 24-6 win in a two-quarter “B” contest. In that game, Easton Matock tallied four points and Xavier Poeverlein netted two for AMMS.