The boys’ basketball varsity team played Chambersburg at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 13. 

“As I do for any opponent, I watched previous Chambersburg game films and scouted what they like to do both offensively and defensively,” head coach Doug Pfeffer said.

The game started with Chambersburg getting the jump ball and scoring immediately. 

“It was not the start to the game we wanted as they won the tip and went down and scored an easy layup,” Pfeffer said.

Chambersburg continued to build a lead until Altoona scored, answering back.

“I felt better, but we’re still down so we knew we had to come back,” Ethan Hicks said.

By the end of the first quarter the score was seven to 19.

“We felt as though we were still in the game up to that point since we did not shoot the ball very well and didn’t take care of the basketball and were only down 12 points,” Pfeffer said.

The boys continued to score but so did Chambersburg. Altoona was down nearly 20 points. 

“Chambersburg shot the ball and took care of the ball much better than we did.  They are a very athletic team and they used that to their advantage.  They forced us into a lot of turnovers that led to easy baskets for them,” Pfeffer said.

By halftime Altoona was losing 14 to 33. 

“We reviewed what we could do better to try and make a comeback in the second half.  I told the team that they were playing very hard and giving effort, but we needed to be more aggressive and compete at a higher level.  I also stressed that we needed to take care of the basketball and shoot the ball at a better percentage,” Pfeffer said.

Altoona continued to work hard and try to catch up to Chambersburg.

“We changed the game plan to change our defense up a little bit. Just trying to get more shots than we did in the first half,” Dante Larocco said. 

The score leading into the final quarter was 27 to 54.

“At that point, we know that a comeback is very unlikely.  We stress that our goal was to win that fourth quarter.  This team, no matter what the score is, has given great effort throughout the season.  We never want to give up during a game,” Pfeffer said.

Altoona did their best to close the gap however it was no use, they had lost with a final score of 41 to 69.  

“I think they were working harder, but they’re also more talented,” Larocco said

This was the boys last basketball game of the season.