WESTON, Mass. — Ryan Altman vividly remembers the weekly outings with his late grandmother, Barbara Widett. The painting, the trips to bowling or mini golf. Every Tuesday, they would get together to do an activity, and finish off the day by going to get ice cream.
“She meant everything to me,” Altman said. “Those days, I will remember forever. You don’t remember a lot of things when you’re seven years old, but that right there, is something I’ll never forget.”
Altman lost his grandmother to pancreatic cancer in 2015, and he’s never stopped honoring her since. Ten years later – and fittingly, on another Tuesday – he did so in the best way he could. For the third time, Altman participated in the A Shot For Life All-Star Game, an annual basketball showcase in which local athletes raise money for cancer research.
This year’s edition is another day Altman (Brookline, Mass.) won’t soon forget. With his family watching him play from the stands of Benson Gymnasium – the Rivers School gym he called home for three NEPSAC championships and two ISL titles – one last time, Altman powered Team Blue to a 175-170 win with a 24-point, 15-rebound, 12-assist triple-double, a stat line reminiscent of some of the best games of his storied career.
In a few weeks, Altman will head off to Penn to begin his college career; he couldn’t have asked for a more meaningful final game at Rivers.
“Literally, I can’t describe it,” Altman said. “This gym, everything it’s meant to me, all the memories, to be able to finish it off with this game, I’m just so honored to be able to do it here. … I couldn’t think of a better place to play really, my last high school basketball game.
“This game means everything to me. Getting to do this for my third year, just absolutely incredible. Any time I can combine my two favorite things, basketball and raising money for cancer, nothing can beat it. … (I’m) always thinking of (my grandma), especially every time I put on this jersey, and I reach out to people for fundraising. I can’t even describe the emotions I feel.”
Belmont Hill star and Brown-bound guard Isaiah Langham (Boston, Mass.) scored 31 points to lead Team Blue, while St. Andrew’s guard Kyle Benjamin’s (Braintree, Mass.) 31 points paced Team White. In the girls game, New Hampton’s Elyse Ngenda (Bedford, N.H.) scored 23 points to stave off her Mass Rivals teammate and Northfield Mount Hermon star Olivia Fleming (Windham, N.H.), who put in 20.
But the final scores and numbers paled in comparison to the true meaning of the night, which was for healthy competition between the region’s stars for a great cause. Tuesday’s ASFL All-Star Games lead into the event’s signature shooting challenge on Saturday. This is the 13th year of the ASFL Challenge, which brings together some of the best players from New England who will compete in Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Connecticut to become the best shooter in their state.
Some of the participants have a personal connection to the cause. Medfield star Tess Baacke lost her mom, Tara, to glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in 2016. The funds raised by ASFL contribute to glioblastoma treatment.
REMEMBERING MOM: How Tara Baacke's life and memory lives on in Tess
This was Baacke’s first experience playing in the ASFL All-Star Game. Two years ago, she participated in the ASFL Gauntlet, a 24-hour marathon basketball event that is meant to be loosely symbolic of the daily struggle that cancer patients face.
“It was so much better to have a meaning behind it,” Baacke said. “It’s definitely fun and everything like that, but it’s also a little bit sentimental to me especially. …
Baacke says she still has daily reminders of her mom, like memories that come up while she’s cooking, which she cherishes.
“It was super funny because I had a little memory of her today and it was really sentimental, especially coming here,” Baacke said. “It’s great after all these years — it’s been nine years and every single day reminds me of her. It’s just so great that I’m still thinking about her every day.”
Tuesday’s girls game was objectively more competitive than the boys game, where there weren’t many stops. But the event provided a fun, light-hearted environment that allowed friends and teammates to play together again, or even play against each other, for a bigger purpose. It gave Baacke a rare opportunity to play against Medfield teammate Naya Annigeri, and she was grateful to have one last chance to play with former Medfield teammate Izzy Kittredge, who’s transferring to Nobles.
Ngenda and Fleming, who are AAU teammates on Mass Rivals, engaged in some friendly banter, especially during a stretch when Fleming made three consecutive 3-pointers and took a heat check.
“She hit a 3 in my face and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, like here we go,’” Ngenda said. “Then she immediately got hot. It was just fun to see my AAU teammate playing against me for the first time, it was a lot of fun.”
For the first time they can remember, Altman matched up against Jay Jones (Brookline, Mass.). The two lifelong friends, who are both soon headed to Penn together, were longtime teammates growing up, including at Rivers and with the Middlesex Magic, but have rarely suited up for different teams. It led to some funny moments. On one play, Altman led a 2-on-1 fast-break against Jones, but the latter got out of the way to avoid getting dunked on. There was plenty of playful trash talk between the two.
“I hit a 3 on him, I’m talking trash, he’s talking trash right back,” Altman said. “That’s exactly how we want it. We push each other to get better and we’re going to keep doing that.”
