A right corner three at the buzzer by St. Anthony took the air out Altamont’s sails on Saturday night as the Indians suffered a 51-50 loss to the Bulldogs in the Championship game of the National Trail Conference Boys Basketball Tournament. Altamont’s offense was slow to start the game as the Indians didn’t score their first basket until 3:17 to go in the quarter on a pair of Parker Bell free throws but they would end the quarter leading by a point, 7-6, with Bell leading the way with four points. Altamont found a little momentum to start the second quarter as a basket from Bell, a steal and ensuing basket in transition from Cooper McManaway and a Kade Milleville basket off a St. Anthony turnover put the Indians up 13-6 with 6:46 left in the half. Altamont would only score on a free throw over the next six and a half minutes of the quarter and were tied up 14-14 after a 8-1 St. Anthony run until Kade Milleville flipped up a shot from halfcourt at the buzzer that hit on the back of the rim and got a shooter’s bounce to drop through and give Altamont a 17-14 lead at halftime. The Indians were able to slightly extend their lead to 24-19 a few minutes into the third quarter, but St. Anthony went on a 8-2 run to retake the lead, 27-26, with just over three minutes to go in the quarter and opened that lead to four points over Altamont, 36-32, by the end of the third quarter. St. Anthony pushed their lead over the Indians to eight points, 40-32, with 6:29 to go in the game but Altamont responded with a 9-0 run to regain the lead, 41-40. After a Bulldog three-pointer put St. Anthony up 43-41, a drive and basket from Milleville tied the game up at 43-43 with 2:46 remaining. Altamont took the lead again, 46-45, on a left wing three-pointer from Bell but St. Anthony tied it up at 46-46 with 50.8 seconds on a made free throw. A three-pointer from Zaine Miller from just to the left of the top of the key put the Indians back on top 49-46 leading St. Anthony to take a timeout. Altamont would go to the free throw line with 8.9 seconds to go but missed on both attempts and then put St. Anthony at the line with 5.2 seconds to go and with both free throws made, the Altamont lead was cut to 49-48. The Indians were fouled quickly on the inbounds play and Kade Milleville made one of two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining to extend Altamont’s lead to 50-48. After the second free throw was made, the inbounds pass was raced up the right side floor and the Bulldogs Keenan Griffith was able to get an off balance three-pointer off from between the right wing and the right corner that dropped through to give St. Anthony the shocking 51-50 win over Altamont. The Indians are now 14-8 on the season and will return to action on Tuesday when they host Flora.
Altamont Scoring:
Kade Milleville – 16 points
Cooper McManaway – 12 points
Parker Bell – 11 points
Zaine Miller – 6 points
Jacob Johnson – 5 points
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