Wildcat Hoops Falls to Altoona, 57-40

cm-basketballBALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP — Five days after scoring a season-high 82 points in a win at Huntingdon, the Central Mountain basketball team returned home Wednesday night and put up a season-low 40 points in a 57-40 loss to visiting Altoona.

Wildcat coach Scott Baker went into the game planning to use his starters sparingly and he did so, rotating through 12 players, as Central Mountain will be competing in the Heartland Conference tourney beginning with a semifinal Thursday night where a win would lead to a championship matchup on Friday night. And the Wildcats are scheduled to begin District 6 Class 5A play Monday, a semifinal game at home against Bellefonte, based on preliminary seeding (official pairings are to be posted Thursday).

So a lot of Wildcats logged time against Altoona, the Mountain Lions also rotating players in and out. Afterwards coach Baker said he was happy that no one got hurt but he was unhappy with the offensive showing from his starters. Five Wildcats were in double-figures in the win at Huntingdon, none against Altoona, the starters combining for 16 points. The team was hampered by the absence of leading scorer Kyle Everhart, held out as a precaution, Baker said, because of a minor foot injury.

Central Mountain raced to a 16-6 first quarter lead but would only put up 24 the rest of the way. Top scorer was sophomore Collin Jones with 7 points, Matt Storeman next with 6 and Justin Neff and Yash Adroja next with 5 each. No one else had more than 3.

The Wildcats finished the regular season at 15-7, Altoona at 11-9. Central Mountain will play Loyalsock (16-5) in the Heartland tourney semifinal at 6 p.m. Thursday, the game played at Shikellamy High School in Sunbury. Selinsgrove (18-4) and Central Columbia (13-9) will meet in a 7:30 p.m. semifinal. Thursday winners will play Friday at 8 p.m. for the 2017 PHAC basketball championship.

Feb. 15, 2017 1 2 3 4 TOTAL
ALTOONA 6 18 14 19 57
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN 16 8 10 6 40
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