Altamont basketball took an early lead and would hold it the entire game as the 4th seeded Indians knocked off the top-seeded Cumberland Pirates 54-50 in the first Championship semifinal game of the National Trail Conference Tournament on Thursday night. The Indians got out to a quick 7-0 lead over the Pirates with an early basket from Jacob Johnson and then two baskets and a free throw from Cooper McManaway. The Indians held Cumberland scoreless until 2:50 remaining in the quarter when the Pirates hit their first basket and cut the Altamont lead down slightly to 7-2. Not long after that with 1:36 remaining in the quarter, Cumberland Coach Justin Roedl was given two successive technical fouls and was ejected from the game for arguing a foul call and the Indians were given four free throws. Kade Milleville hit two of the four and Altamont’s lead pushed up to seven points again and then became a 10 point lead, 12-2 after a basket and free throw from Milleville. Cumberland ended the quarter on a 4-0 run but the Indians continued to hold the lead, 12-6, heading to the second quarter. A left wing three from McManaway and a baseline save play from Parker Bell to Cooper Pals had the Indians on a 5-0 run and their lead pushed out to 17-6. The Pirates kept battling and used a 9-2 run to cut the Indians lead down to just four points, 19-15, but Altamont went on a 9-5 run to close the half and extend their lead to 28-20. After trading baskets on the first four possessions of the second half, it was the Indians getting the next run of the game again as they pulled ahead 37-24 after six unanswered points. Following the storyline of the game to that point, another run ended the third quarter as the Pirates closed out the last few minutes on a 9-4 run including a buzzer beating put back basket to cut the Altamont lead back down to eight points, 41-33, as the game shifted to the fourth quarter. Four points from Zaine Miller and a basket by Johnson extended the Indians lead to 47-33 before a 7-0 run from the Pirates closed it up to seven point game, 47-40. After an Altamont timeout with 2:31 remaining in the game, the Indians were able to stop the Pirates momentum with a Johnson basket and a pair of free throws from Miller to push their lead out to 11 points, 51-40. A 7-1 Cumberland run put the pressure on Altamont again as the Indians lead was cut down to 51-46 with just under 40 seconds remaining. A McManaway free throw and a Cumberland basket cut it to 52-48 before a second Cumberland delay of game call in the quarter led to a technical foul for the Pirates and put Milleville at the free throw line where he knocked down both shots to put the Indians up 54-48. Cumberland was able to get one final basket in before the clock ran out as Altamont held off Cumberland for the 54-50 win. With the win, Altamont is 14-7 on the season and will go to Saturday night’s Championship game at 7:30pm and they await the outcome of tonight’s second semifinal game to see if they will face the St. Anthony Bulldogs or the Dieterich Movin’ Maroons. This will be the first appearance for the Indians in the title game since 2023 in which they defeated St. Anthony for the second straight year in the Championship game.
Altamont Scoring:
Kade Milleville – 13 points
Cooper McManaway – 12 points
Zaine Miller – 12 points
Jacob Johnson – 9 points
Parker Bell – 3 points
Blake Berg – 3 points
Cooper Pals – 2 points
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