The Altamont Lady Indians handed St. Anthony just their second loss of the year, withstanding a late Bulldog run to get the 78-67 win, led by the 43-point effort by Grace Nelson that put her in the record books once again for surpassing the 2,000 career point milestone. After falling behind 11-6 early on in the first quarter, Altamont went on a 9-0 run to pull ahead 15-11 before St. Anthony ended the quarter on a 7-2 run to regain the lead over the Indians who trailed just 18-17 at the end of the first. Altamont would come up big in the second quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 27-12, taking advantage of the ability to run in transition as they would take a 44-30 halftime lead. St. Anthony would be the team to come out strong in the second half to start, hitting two buckets to close the Altamont lead to 10 before the Indians started to pull away after a 12-2 run put them up 56-36. During that run, Libby Reardon would tip a St. Anthony pass into the hands of Claire Boehm who would find Nelson releasing up the floor and would hit Nelson who would put in the layup for her 2,000th and 2,001st point of her career, coming with 5:14 left in the third. After that Altamont run, the Bulldogs would come back and outscore the Lady Indians 11-5 over the remainder of the third to pull back within 14 points of Altamont as the Indians led 61-47 heading into the fourth quarter. Altamont opened the fourth with an 8-2 run to push their lead back to 20, leading 69-49 with 5:31 left in the game. St. Anthony would close the lead down to 8, cutting it to 72-64 with 2:03 left, but Altamont would close out the 78-67 win. The Lady Indians move to 5-2 on the season and take over the top spot in the National Trail Conference standings at 3-0, just ahead of 2-0 Neoga. Nelson would finish the game with 43 points to lead the Lady Indians as two other players finished in double digit scoring with Claire Boehm tallying 12 points and Kaylee Lurkins hitting for 10 points. Altamont will return home on Thursday where they will have a non-conference matchup with Nokomis before they play back to back conference opponents next week.
In JV action, the Lady Indians fell to St. Anthony, 19-15, in a shortened game.
Altamont Scoring:
Grace Nelson – 43 points
Claire Boehm – 12 points
Kaylee Lurkins – 10 points
Peyton Osteen – 9 points
Kylie Osteen – 2 points
Skylie Klein – 2 points
