Sentinel photo by SAM BAUMGARDNER Mifflin County junior Lucas Hartung goes for the basket over Altoona junior Elliott McCloskey.

By Dominic Reed

Sports correspondent

LEWISTOWN — No. 2 Mifflin County (13-10) clashed with nonconference foe No. 3 Altoona (5-18) in the District 6 Class 6A semifinal game at Mifflin County High School where the Huskies came out with a 70-55 win over the Mountain Lions.

Both teams battled early in a packed gym with the Mountain Lions drawing first blood. Altoona got early production from MaLikal Shields and Justin Pfeffer but the Mountain Lions would still trail after the first quarter 18-11

Mifflin County was able to force early turnovers as the purple and white would score seven early points off turnovers in the first half. The lead would grow larger for the Huskies as the Mountain Lions would trail by 15 points in the second quarter in part because of solid defensive efforts from Lucas Hartung and Luke Bender.

Huskies coach Wade Curry said, “We have to focus on our improvement in different areas, especially defensively and do that for 32 minutes. The first half I thought we played the best defense we could have played. The second half we kind of escaped the principles that we talked about and a lot of defensive letdowns. We will be committed to fixing that tomorrow in the gym and preparing to play 32 minutes against State College.”

It was a tale of two halves for the Huskies from a shooting standpoint. It would be powered by a strong second half from Curry leading the way with 17 points on three triples as 14 points would be scored by Curry.

Husky Jack Curry said, “We have to stay locked in. We aren’t going to try to get our hopes up high. We’ll come back tomorrow, put the work in at practice and keep planning for the next game.”

Altoona did not give up late in the third quarter as the Mountain Lions would cut it within eight points and they were led by strong three-point shooting as Chris Wagner would put together an 18-point second half, but it wouldn’t be enough to come out on top.

Despite seven triples from the Altoona offense the deficit would be too much to overcome on the road as the Huskies sweep Altoona and will now set their sights on top seed State College on Thursday in the district title game at Mount Aloysius College.

From staff reports

BOYS BASKETBALL

Huntingdon drops Juniata, 63-54

HUNTINGDON — No. 2 Huntingdon got 33 points from Elliott Cruisler and the home squad beat No. 3 Juniata in the D6 Class 4A semifinals on Tuesday night, 63-54.

For the victors, Kobe Carken added 10 points and Caleb Rutter had five.

The Bearcats (14-9) made seven shots from downtown.

For the Indians (12-11), Jasper Shepps posted 20 points and Brian Kuhn tacked on 12. Damien Vance added nine points and the Indians had four made threes.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Northwest stumps EJ, 47-27

SHICKSHINNY — No. 3 Northwest girls hoops beat No. 6 East Juniata on Tuesday night, 47-27, in the D4 Class 2A quarterfinals.

For the Tigers (8-13), Landyn Cramer had 13 points and Madi Snyder had eight. Carolyn Dressler tallied six points.

EJ had four made threes.

For the Rangers (19-5), Ali Miner had 14 points and Natalia Ninotti added 13. Ava Ruckle collected eight and Ashlyn Hermanofski added seven.

Northwest had seven made shots from downtown.