The Lady Lions were glad the Lady Millionaires made the trip.

Altoona struggled offensively in the first quarter and led by just three going into the second and by six with less than five minutes to play before halftime, but finally snapped out of it and cruised to a 57-10 win at the AAHS Fieldhouse that clinched a spot in Thursday’s District 4-6 championship game at Mount Aloysius at 6 p.m. against State College.

“I would rather play a first quarter like we did tonight in this game than play a first quarter like that on Thursday,” Altoona coach Chris Fleegle said. “I joked with my staff it was good to get that quarter out of the way. It was good to play. You can’t replicate a game atmosphere in practice. With that quarter out of the way, hopefully we don’t start slow on Thursday.”

Altoona forced 10 turnovers in the first quarter and limited Williamsport to just five shot attempts, but the Lady Lions missed several layups and wide open 3-point shots and led just 7-4 after eight minutes.

“We have players that we know can make shots, and they got decent looks that weren’t going in,” Fleegle said. “I felt bad for them, because they put so much time into it.”

Payton Pennycoff made two free throws with 4:58 to play in the half that cut Altoona’s lead to 12-6, but the Lady Lions ended the half on a 20-0 run. Williamsport turned it over 25 times in the first half thanks to full-court pressure from Altoona.

“We pride ourselves on defense and spend a lot of time on it in practice,” Fleegle said. “We wanted to speed things up for them, and we doubleteamed them on the sideline. Our defense converted the turnovers into easy offensive opportunities.”

Making matters worse for the Lady Millionaires, they were down an experienced ballhandler.

“We were down a starter tonight and had to start two freshmen and two sophomores,” Williamsport coach Lamar Ballard said. “We’re young, but I just wanted them to keep fighting and competing. We knew Altoona wouldn’t flinch — that’s a championship caliber team. I thought we hung in it for about a quarter and a half, and then the levees broke. That’s kind of been the story of our season.”

Williamsport, which lost to Altoona 58-14 in the regular season on Jan. 14, managed just two baskets, both by Jaelynn Helmrich — who led the Millionaires with six points — in the second half as Altoona cleared its bench.

“We were happy to get a chance to play, and it’s good preparation for our district game,” Altoona senior Zaelinh Nguyen-Moore said. “It gave us another game to really lock in what we’re doing and be set up for success on Thursday. We had a slow start tonight, but we all knew to stay composed and stay together, and that’s what we did.”

Raylin Eyer led the Lady Lions with 16 points, and Nguyen-Moore added 10 points and seven rebounds. Brionna Hudson had eight points and eight rebounds. Altoona sat its starters the final quarter and a half.

“We could have opted out,” Ballard said. “Because we are so young, I thought it was important for the girls to come feel this atmosphere and understand what it was going to be like. Our goal is to get to where Altoona is and to be at that level of program where we are consistently playing good basketball.”

Altoona is now 18-4 with two single-digit losses to Central Dauphin and a pair of non-conference losses early in the season when the team was dealing with some injuries.

The Lady Lions own two wins over State College, their opponent in Thursday’s district title game, by 25 and 15 points earlier this season.

“We did lose a lot (from last year),” Fleegle said. “Lanie (Wilt) and Melana (Eyer) were two of the top five players in the area in my opinion. We worked hard over the summer, battled some injuries early, but the girls are overachieving from what a lot of people thought we would do, and I still think we can get better.”

WILLIAMSPORT (10): Engel 1 0-0 2, Connode 0 0-0 0, Minor 0 0-0 0, Helmrich 3 0-0 6, Fabian 0 0-0 0, Pennycoff 0 2-2 2, Ka. Solomon 0 0-0 0, Ky. Solomon 0 0-0 0, Valencia 0 0-0 0, Pawlak 0 0-0 0, Kenyon 0 0-0 0, Ballard 0 0-0 0. Totals — 4 2-2 10.

ALTOONA (57): Nguyen-Moore 4 2-2 10, Hudson 4 0-0 8, Eyer 6 2-2 16, Cogan 3 0-0 6, Harpster 1 0-0 3, Cuspert 1 1-2 4, Heyward 1 0-0 2, Harzbecker 3 0-0 6, Davis 0 0-0 0, Lantzy 0 0-0 0, Rossman 0 0-0 0, Plunket 0 0-0 0, K. Beck 0 0-0 0, Nedimyer 0 0-0 0, E. Beck 0 0-0 0, Williams 1 0-0 2, Stadtmiller 0 0-0 0, Neuner 0 0-0 0, Wagner 0 0-0 0, Potts 1 0-0 2. Totals — 25 5-6 57.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Williamsport 4 2 4 0 — 10

Altoona 7 25 17 8 — 57

3-point goals: Williamsport: none; Altoona 4 (Eyer 2, Harpster, Cuspert).

Records: Williamsport (7-15); Altoona (18-4).

Officials: Denny Detwiler, Emma Musser, Bill Musser.