On Friday, Jan. 26, the girls’ varsity basketball team defeated Cumberland Valley.
“It felt good to win. It’s definitely like we’re winning a game at a time, so it feels like a big accomplishment even after every game that we win,” sophomore Zaelighn Nguyen-Moore
The starters for the game were senior Jaiden Krull, juniors Lanie Wilt and Melana Eyer along with sophomores Nguyen-Moore and Samantha Harpster.
“Since elementary school, I’ve worked hard. It’s always been my dream to have a future career in basketball,” Eyer said.
The first two minutes of the game were suspenseful until Nguyen-Moore made a foul shot finally giving the Lady Lions a slight upper hand.
“It felt good; I missed my first one though. So I was not upset, but I was in the mindset to make the next one and then when I made the next one. It was like the start of the game,” Nguyen-Moore said.
The Lady Lions continued to build up a lead until the first quarter ended with a score of 7-0.
“I wasn’t nervous, but I felt like our team wasn’t really playing together. So I felt like we needed to just come together and work harder in the second quarter than the other team,” Nguyen-Moore said.
The girls started the first quarter by double teaming the Cumberland Valley players up top. This caused multiple turnovers, giving Altoona the upper hand.
“What it does is it really just throws the team out of their comfort zone. So when you’re sending another player at them, and they’re getting trapped, that moment of panic comes into play. And a lot of times teams will throw the ball away. You might not necessarily get a steal, but you’ll get a turnover in regards to that. So I just think that it was once again something they weren’t prepared for,” Coach Amy Palfey said.
The game continued to pick up pace, and by halftime the score was 19-5.
“I couldn’t have been prouder of our defensive effort and rebounding effort because that’s limiting them to like one shot opportunity. A lot of the shots they were taking as well weren’t great shots. They weren’t really open looks either. So I’m really thrilled with the defensive effort. The further you go along in playoffs and the things that are coming up your defense is really what you need to be strong,” Palfey said
About two minutes into the third quarter, the Lady Lions decided to run a full court press.
“Sometimes there’s a fear when we come out into the third quarter that the intensity level will drop given that we had a lead on a team. So sometimes if you have your team come out and play an up tempo defense that keeps the intensity up, and I believe that was our mindset that we wanted to keep the intensity up on the defensive end of the floor,” Palfey said
The third quarter ended with a score of 32-13; Altoona was winning by nearly twenty points.
“We were excited knowing that we were up by that much because we like to get our bench to the game and some of the JV players,” Eyer said.
The girls continued to work hard and build a lead.
“I definitely think our defense was the main thing that helped us win in seeing the ball going into the basket and having confidence in each other,” Eyer said.
The game ended with a final score of 44-18. Altoona had won again.
“We did a lot of scouting to prepare. The two practices before we were really focused and were kind of just attentive to details,” Nguyen-Moore said.
The girls next home game is Feb. 6, at 6:30 against Hollidayburg.
