SOUTH HAVEN – Following a long bus ride, the Altoona-Midway Jets took the court in the playoff semifinals Monday, hoping to find a safe haven for their dreams of a berth in the Class 1A-Division II Sub-State championship later this week.
But instead of a benign safe haven, they ran into a determined South Haven.
The South Haven Cardinals, successfully defending their home court in a hard-fought 1A-II sub-state semifinal matchup, ended Altoona-Midway’s season with a 66-59 victory here Monday night.
“It was a good game, and we battled the entire way,” said AMHS head coach Dave Vance. “We just had a few too many turnovers, and while we kept it close, we never could quite get over the hump.”
Class 1A-DII Sub-State
The win propels South Haven (14-8) into the sub-state championship game Saturday night, where they will face top-seeded Elyria Christian School of McPherson (18-4). Elyria advanced to the title game by virtue of a 61-30 win over Waverly (4-18).
South Haven and Elyria will square off Saturday, March 8, at Central Christian College in McPherson for the right to participate in the Class 1A-II State Tournament, to be held March 12-15 at Colby.
Altoona-Midway closes out its season with an overall record of 12-10. It marked the fourth time in six years the Jets have advanced past the opening round of the sub-state playoffs.
And while the Jets failed to earn a repeat appearance in the sub-state finals, they did finish with back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2006 and 2007.
AMHS vs. South Haven
After making the long 2.5-hour bus ride to South Haven, Altoona-Midway started strong and led through much of the first quarter and a half. But the Cardinals were tall and relentless on the offensive glass, and eventually proved to be too much for the Jets, claiming the 66-59 triumph in the hard-fought sub-state semifinal.
“Despite the long drive, the guys were ready to play,” Vance said. “We got off to a good start, and we played with a lot of heart – but in the end we had a few too many turnovers to come away with a victory.”
Early buckets by Kage Beck and Joey Lamendola got the Jets off to a 4-0 lead, and AMHS was up 12-10 at the quarter.
After the Cardinals hit a trey to go up 13-12, the Jets churned out six unanswered points and led 18-13. Unfortunately, the Jets became very rattled against the press at that point. They advanced the ball past half court just once during a span that saw their five-point lead turn into a five-point deficit.
A dunk and two free throws by South Haven senior Brady Russell finished off a 15-3 run that put the Cardinals up 28-20 at intermission.
We played pretty well in every quarter but the second quarter, but that was pretty much the story of the game,” Vance said. “We outscored them by two in both the first and third quarters, and we never game up (the fourth quarter was a wild 25-24 affair), but we were just never able to get all the way back even with them.”
Taj Chism connected from behind the arc late in the third period to make it 37-33, the closest the Jets were able to come in the second half.
The South Haven lead ballooned to as much as 11 in the final stanza, but three treys by William Stackhouse in the period kept things interesting. The Jets were within six and had possession with 30 seconds remaining, but hopes of a miracle finish failed to materialize.
SHHS birthday boy Alex Shore poured in 26 points to pace the Cardinals, while Maddox Pond and Russell chipped in 13 and 10, respectively.
Altoona-Midway was whistled for 19 fouls, with both Chism and Stackhouse being disqualified.
When Stackhouse fouled out with 2:05 remaining, he left the court for the final time as a Jet with a stat line of 25 points for the night; 409 points for the season (sixth-best in school history); and 1,084 points for his career (fourth on the all-time chart for AMHS).
But the Jets had fine contributions from several others as well. Beck also reached double digits with 11, Kieran Foster tossed in nine, Chism seven, Lamendola five, and Chance Mustain added two.
“We finally had a good shooting night, hitting 50 percent (13-for-26) on our two pointers, 39 percent (9-of-23) on our three-pointers, and 75 percent (9-of-12) on our free throws,” Vance noted. “We played good defense, and the boys gave it a great effort.”
It marked the final game for three AMHS seniors, Kieran Foster, Joey Lamendola, and William Stackhouse.
“After coming so close a year ago (falling by five in the sub-state finals after leading at halftime), we had high hopes of completing that goal when this year began,” Vance said. “But even though we came up a little short, these are the first back-to-back winning seasons for our school since the 2006-2007 season … about the time our seniors were born.
We hate to bid farewell to our three seniors, Kieran, Joey and William,” Vance continued. They will be sorely missed. The boys made a lot of progress this season becoming better players and better men. And I am positive that the players returning next season will be ready to step up their games.”