Moore helps AAHS trounce State College
Trending
CRESSON -- Altoona's girls basketball team flashed its full potential Saturday afternoon against State College in the District 6 Class 6A championship game at Mount Aloysius.
The Lady Little Lions led from start to finish and were never really threatened in a 61-42 win over their Mid-Penn Conference rival and will play either the District 8 or District 10 champion at Hollidaysburg in a PIAA seeding game on March 2.
"It's actually a relief," Altoona coach Chris Fleegle said. "It's a shame that out of District 6, one of us has to go home this early. I really do believe this team can make some noise in the state playoffs because of the way they compete and how hard they play. It's a relief to get this one to be able to advance."
That belief has a lot to do with the full package Altoona hits teams with that is kick-started by point-forward Zaelinh Nguyen-Moore who often brings the ball up the court, drives into the paint and creates opportunities for teammates.
"I'm definitely drive-first," Nguyen-Moore said. "When I drive and try to draw defenders, it's easy to find shooters on our team. We have a great number of shooters, so it's pretty easy to find them."
Saturday, Lanie Wilt and Melana Eyer took full advantage. Eyer finished with a team-high 18 points, and Wilt scored 17 and made five 3-pointers.
"We were a little worried with a big break with our shooting rhythm," Fleegle said. "But our kids work really hard when they aren't in front of anyone, outside of us and outside of practice. These kids work hard. It seemed like Melana has had good games and Lanie have had good games, but we never really had them both scoring a lot of points. I looked up in the fourth quarter, and one had 18 and the other had 17, and if they play like that, we're going to be tough to beat."
Many of the shots the duo got were open because of penetration or offensive rebounds from Nguyen-Moore, who had a game-high 12 boards.
"Zae is a pass-first player," Fleegle said. "She's looking for the open teammate constantly. Sometimes she's passing up open layups, because she's just that unselfish. Having her on the floor as a creator that would rather have her teammates have a good shot than her get a point is an extra benefit for us."
Nguyen-Moore credits her ability to create for teammates to always thinking a step ahead.
She did that two minutes into the second quarter when she pulled in an offensive rebound and passed over two State College players to find an open Wilt for a 3-pointer that made it 36-18.
"When I'm bringing the ball up at the one, I visualize what's happening next," Nguyen-Moore said. "I think about what my teammates are going to do next. Usually, I'm a pass-first player, and everyone says that. But I do look to score and then try and find them when I can."
It was the second District 6 title in a row for Altoona.
"I feel like this team is definitely going to go somewhere this year," Wilt said. "We play really well together as a whole team. We have come far and through a lot of adversity. Jersey (Hollabaugh) tore her ACL earlier in the year. That was hard for us, because she is one of our seniors, but we stayed together. She's still a big part of the team as our biggest cheerleader, and we're excited to keep going."
Another of those seniors, Jaiden Krull, had nine points and seven rebounds.
"We knew they were going to fight hard," Krull said. "They have really good hustle players this year, and every time we have played them, they have come at us harder and harder. We were prepared for that."
Altoona improved to 19-4 while State College wrapped up its season at 16-7, a much-improved mark over last year's team that fell short of the District 6 title game. McKenna Whitehurst led State College with 10 points.
"We had some shakeups at the end of last season with people leaving," State College coach Ali Mock said. "We spent this summer working with the group and getting them all on board early. From the first day we set a new identity and continued to reinforce and build our skills, and we played a majority of the season with two freshmen and two sophomores that logged the majority of our varsity minutes. We are a good team and have what it takes to compete with anyone on any night."
Mock said when she saw both Eyer and Wilt had it going, she knew it probably wasn't going to be the Lady Little Lions' day.
"It's the game of basketball sometimes," Mock said. "It seems like those nights where they are making everything, we're missing everything. It kind of feels like the rim starts to shrink when we're shooting."
STATE COLLEGE (42): Hawbaker 2 1-1 5, Donnell 0 2-2 2, Sh. Wilson 3 0-0 7, Si. Wilson 3 0-0 6, Tate 4 0-1 8, Tsarnakova 2 0-0 4, Whitehurst 4 0-1 10, Lunon 0 0-0 0. Totals--18 3-5 42.
ALTOONA (61): M. Eyer 7 2-2 18, Nguyen-Moore 3 0-0 6, Wilt 6 0-0 17, Harpster 1 0-0 2, Krull 4 1-2 9, R. Eyer 2 1-2 6, Cogan 0 0-0 0, Knorr 0 0-0 0, Berardinelli 0 0-0 0, Stadtmiller 0 1-2 1, Beltz 1 0-0 2. Totals--24 5-8 61.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
State College 5 9 10 18 — 42
Altoona 14 17 12 18 — 61
3-point goals: State College 3 (Whitehurst 2, Sh. Wilson); Altoona 8 (Wilt 5, M. Eyer 2, R. Eyer)
Records: State College (16-7); Altoona (19-4)
Officials: Frank Garritano, Denny Detwiler, Kevin Laird