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Lady Lions’ advantage inside leads to big win

By Brian Carson

For the Mirror

LEWISTOWN — Altoona had too much size for Mifflin County to overcome as the Mountain Lions took control from the opening quarter to hand the Huskies a 68-41 Mid-Penn Conference defeat Tuesday night.

The Huskies had no answer for the height and length of Altoona as Caranda Perea and Bridgid Fox combined for 36 points, 17 rebounds and nine blocked shots in the win to improve to 10-6 overall and 9-3 in conference play.

Perea had 20 points, five boards and seven blocks, while Fox scored 16 with 12 rebounds and two blocks. The 6-foot-2 Perea and 6-foot-0 Fox were too much inside for the Huskies, who are minus inside players Molly Wagnor and Emma Yeager.

“It seems to be a growing trend with those two. In the last couple games, they’ve really been coming on and they work so nicely together,” Altoona coach Miriam Colledge said. “They feed off of each other. They are very comfortable around the basket with each other, so they know where the other is going to be. It’s a beautiful exhibition to see the two of them out there.”

Guards Adalynn Cherry and Stevie Webber scored in double figures for Altoona with 12 and 11 points respectively.

“At the beginning of the year we had a different team and now with the development of our guards in Webber and Cherry. They’re starting to contribute more and that’s taking the pressure off of Perea and Fox,” Colledge said.

Colledge was without the services of standout Olivia Hudson once again due to a minor concussion.

“Unfortunately, she couldn’t play in tonight’s game. She’s recovering from a minor head injury from a week ago. We had her back for a little bit and lost her again. She’ll be back soon,” Colledge said. “We’re hoping she’ll be ready to go by the time the season ends and we get to playoffs.”

The question on the mind of Colledge is how good could the Mountain Lions be if Hudson was healthy the entire season?

“When the season ended last year those three were our top three scorers. They were all scoring in double figures, mid-fifteen points plus,” Colledge said. “We had all three back and she tore the ACL in June, so it’s been a struggle for her to get back and obviously, we are not where we wish we could be right now. We are playing for the end of the season and we know we have a good chance of having her back in full form.”

Altoona used the outside shooting of Perea to take a commanding 21-5 lead after one. The Mountain Lion junior scored nine in the quarter while Mifflin County (3-9 in Mid-Penn) missed easy layups and plenty of scoring chances.

“Altoona is very good. They are much better than we are right now personnel-wise. They’re pretty gracious. That game could have been very different if she (Colledge) wanted it to be,” MC coach Roger Herto said. “She was pretty gracious with us tonight. She didn’t press the entire time, gave us an opportunity to do some things with our kids and I appreciate that.”

The Mountain Lions kept the pressure up in the second quarter, thanks to eight points from Fox. Altoona won the frame 17-6 to hold a decisive 38-11 advantage at the half.

Freshman Brianna Bodtorf led Mifflin County with 16 points, 11 coming in the third quarter.

Altoona hosts Central Dauphin East on Friday.

ALTOONA (68): Fox 7 2-2 16, Perea 9 0-0 20, Cherry 4 0-0 11, Webber 4 0-0 11, Corbin 2 0-0 4, Frank 1 0-0 3, Reid 1 0-0 2, Rupert 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0-0 0, Burchfield 0 0-0 0, Cree 0 0-0 0. Totals: 28 4-5 68.

MIFFLIN COUNTY (41): Silfies 1 0-0 3, Bodtorf 7 1-3 16, Weston 0 2-2 2, Aumiller 1 1-2 4, Rittenhouse 1 0-0 2, Treaster 1 0-0 2, Aumiller 1 0-0 3, Shilling 1 0-0 2, Weaver 3 0-0 7, Knable 0 0-2 0. Totals: 16 4-9 41.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Altoona 21 17 15 15 – 68

Mifflin County 5 6 16 14 — 41

3-point field goals: Altoona 6 (Webber 3, Perea 2, Frank); Mifflin County 5 (Silfies, Bodtorf, H. Aumiller, M. Aumiller, Weaver)

Records: Altoona (10-6), Mifflin County (5-12)

JV: Mifflin County, 45-32.

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