Currently, the girls’ varsity basketball team stands at 20 wins and four losses for the 2025-26 season. On Feb. 26, the Lady Lions basketball team challenged Hollidaysburg’s Golden Tigers, taking the win with a final score of 48-35.
Their next game is March 6, and will be against Norwin for the playoffs.
“I think we’re well prepared for the playoffs,” senior player Zaelinh Nguyen-Moore said. “We’re confident and we’re excited because hopefully the crowd is going to be big.”
This season, the girls also took home their fourth consecutive district title.
“[The highlight of this season was] winning the fourth straight district title and watching the team grow and get better as the season went on,” girls’ basketball coach Christopher Fleegle said.
Both Nguyen-Moore and her teammate, senior Achiera Cuspert, pointed to their win at Districts as the best part of their last season at Altoona. They believe there are a few reasons for their success.
“I feel like this is the best season I have had, and as a team I feel like we have good chemistry and work together really well,” Cuspert said.
“I feel we have excelled at leadership,” Nguyen-Moore said. “We lost a lot of leaders from last year and a lot of people have stepped up. I think we have improved in working together, but there’s always improvement for teamwork.”
Fleegle added to these statements.
“This year’s team has been very efficient on offense and also has the ability to play many different styles on defense,” Fleegle said. “I think we have developed a deeper varsity rotation than in other years. That’s a credit to the girls and the hard work they put in to earn those extra minutes.”
Despite the team’s achievements, this season has not come without obstacles.
“We lost three seniors last year so this year we had to try to figure some things out,” Nguyen-Moore said. “Preseason was the hardest part of the season this year [because of that], but now we’re in the flow of things.”
Fleegle also discussed the start of their season.
“As always, we challenge the team early in the season, and this year was no different,” Fleegle said. “We were fortunate to play the number one girls’ basketball team in 6A for the first game of the season. The difficult part about playing them was we were down two starters due to injury, so we didn’t get a chance to really see where we stand against the best.”
Next season, the team will need girls to step up to fill the spaces left by this year’s seniors.
“The biggest thing I notice year after year is the growth and leadership each senior class shows,” Fleegle said. “It’s almost like passing the torch. The seniors reinforce the culture and standard we have set on what it means to be a Lady Lion and how to go about being successful.”
For these seniors, the encroaching end of the season—and their career as Lady Lions—makes winning even more important.
“Being a senior definitely makes me realize that the season is almost over,” Nguyen-Moore said. “It also gives me the motivation to play harder and harder every game.”
“I know from now on, if we don’t win, the season will be over, so it’s sad knowing we have at most five games left,” Cuspert said.
The approach of the end of the season also has Fleegle thinking about the team in the years to come.
“My hope is we continue to build on what has been established the last couple of years,” Fleegle said. “We have a great culture that has been passed on from senior class to senior class. We also want to work towards taking the next step at the state level.”
