Basketball

Turnovers continue to haunt Altoona

The Altoona Area High School boys basketball team is winless in its first four games, and second-year Mountain Lions coach Doug Pfeffer believes that the team's struggles in taking care of the basketball is a big reason for its slow start.

"Not taking care of the basketball and turning it over has been our Achilles Heel this season,'' Pfeffer said. "And as the head coach, that all starts with me. I have to get the players into the correct positions in practice and game preparation where that doesn't happen.''

The Mountain Lions were snakebitten by turnovers again Friday night, squandering a 22-9 second-quarter lead as visiting Central Dauphin East rallied on the strength of a strong fourth quarter to score a 54-48 Mid-Penn Conference victory at the Altoona Area High School Fieldhouse.

Led by 5-foot-11 sophomore guard Alijah Cooper's game-high 22 points, including 15 in a fourth quarter that the Panthers carried, 20-13, CD East boosted its overall record to 2-3 and its conference mark to 1-1 with the comeback victory.

"We got off to a great start tonight -- probably the best start that we've had in a game all season -- by getting out on the fast break with our running game, but later in the game, we started to succumb to their defensive pressure,'' Pfeffer said. "We had at least 20 turnovers tonight, and probably closer to 25.''

CD East's speed, quickness and athleticism kept the Mountain Lions' offense off-kilter in the second half. The free throw line was also a factor -- with Altoona converting just eight of its 20 foul shots in the game and CD East making 14 of its 22.

"The foul line hurt us,'' Pfeffer said. "We were just eight of 20 from the foul line, while they made their free throws. If we had made four or five more than we did, it might have been a different outcome.''

With senior Cohen Crawford scoring nine first-quarter points, Altoona used its good transition running game to get out of the gates quickly -- literally and figuratively.

But CD East whittled its 22-9 second-quarter deficit to just one point, 25-24, at intermission behind senior Kevin Fox's seven points and senior Eddie Tate's six off the bench.

Cooper's steal and length-of-the-court layup early in the third quarter gave CD East its first lead of the night, 26-25, and the lead went back-and-forth between the two teams until midway through the fourth quarter.

Cooper score four field goals and seven of nine free throws in the fourth quarter.

"He has a very high basketball IQ and he loves being in the moment,'' CD East coach Ryan Hill said of Cooper. "Even though he's a sophomore and he's young, he's a kid who I can trust out on the floor. He steps up to the moment. It's good to have a kid like that on your team.''

It certainly was during the fourth quarter Friday, when Cooper turned the game in CD East's favor for good.

After a short bank shot by junior Nymier Shields gave Altoona a 41-40 lead, Cooper converted a steal into a length-of-the-court layup. After being fouled on the shot, he hit the free throw to complete the 3-point play, giving CD East a lead that it would never relinquish, 43-41, with just over three minutes left.

After CD East regained possession on senior Nassir Henry's rebound, the Panthers got into transition, and Cooper parlayed an athletic move on the fast break into another layup to give the Panthers a 46-41 advantage.

Another Cooper steal and an Altoona foul resulted in two Cooper free throws to boost the CD East advantage to 48-41 with under two minutes remaining.

"We used our pressure and I think we played a lot better defensively in the second half, and we also rebounded much better than we did in the first half,'' Cooper said.

After junior forward M.J. Harrington, whose 14 points led Altoona scorers -- converted his third 3-pointer of the game on a shot from the top of the circle with 1:20 left to pull the Mountain Lions to within 48-44, Fox hit one of two free throws before Altoona sophomore Dante LaRocco's layup pulled Altoona back to within 49-46 with 1:04 left.

But Cooper hit three of four free throws down the stretch to help CD East hang on.

Sophomore Roan Greaser scored 12 points and Crawford finished with 11 for Altoona, which hosts Central Dauphin Tuesday night.

"We made some plays tonight that our intensity on defense presented for us,'' Hill said. "This was a good win for us in a very close basketball game.''

Game notes: Altoona's 2003 team that won the District 6 championship and qualified for the state semifinals was honored at halftime ... Rebounding leaders in the game were Cooper with eight and Harrington with seven.

CD EAST (54): Alijah Cooper 7 8-10 22, Henry 1 0-2 2, D. Fox 0 0-0 0, Lownes 0 0-0 0, Vega 1 0-0 3, K. Fox 3 3-5 9, Tate 3 2-3 8, A.J. Cooper 0 0-0 0, Byrd 1 0-0 2, Washington 0 0-0 0, Jackson-Copney 2 1-2 5, Greene 1 0-0 3. Totals - 19 14-22 54.

ALTOONA (48): Crawford 4 2-2 11, Corso 0 0-0 0, LaRocco 1 0-0 2, Greaser 3 5-9 12, Harrington 5 1-7 14, Shields 1 0-0 2, Purvis 3 0-0 7, Owulade 0 0-2 0, Dunkle 0 0-0 0, Walker 0 0-0 0. Totals - 17 8-20 48.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CD East 5 19 10 20--54

Altoona 14 11 10 13--48

3-point goals: CD East 2 (Vega, Greene): Altoona 6 (Harrington 3, Greaser, Crawford, Purvis):

Records: CD East (2-3 overall, 1-1 in the Mid-Penn Conference); Altoona (0-4, 0-1).

Officials: Ethan Vipond, Todd Grindle, Brad Martz.

JV: No game.