Traveling to the county seat on Friday afternoon to take on Hollidaysburg, both the eighth and ninth grade Tyrone junior high boys basketball teams were in the hunt for their 20th victory of the season. Playing simultaneously in gyms at either end of the Hollidaysburg Junior High, both Eagles teams were upended in hard-fought down to the wire games.
The ninth graders lost 39-37 after a tumultuous final eight minutes, and the eighth graders lost moments later 37-34 in overtime.
In the 9th grade game, the Eagles started off with great shooting from the outside as Kyle Updyke hit two 3-pointer\’s, and they worked hard on defense and on the boards to limit the Tiger\’s opportunities. This led to a 14-3 first quarter lead, and Tyrone was in the driver\’s seat.
But Hollidaysburg came right back in the second quarter, scoring three straight buckets to cut the Tyrone lead to 14-9. The Eagles responded with Updyke hitting a runner down the lane, and Ben Ingle completing a 3-point play to make it 19-11. From that point on, the two teams traded baskets with Ingle completing another 3-point play and Nate Dane sinking two from the foul line.
The Eagles went into the locker room leading at halftime 24-15.
Starting the second half, the Eagles had possession first, and used the first few minutes to build a larger 28-15 lead behind baskets by Ingle and Travis Peterman.
The Tigers got a score, and that was answered again by Tyrone as Ingle sunk a soft 3-pointer to give the Eagles a 31-17 advantage. Sensing that the game was slipping away, Hollidaysburg went into an aggressive man-to-man defense, and were able to get a few drives on the offensive end to climb back within eight points, 31-23.
Then as time was winding down in the third quarter, the Eagles were flagged with a flagrant technical foul as the Tigers were applying defensive pressure on the left sideline. The Tigers sank both free throws to pull within 6, ending the quarter 31-25.
Just after starting the fourth period, Tyrone was flagged again with another technical foul, and the Tigers sank two more free throws to get within three at 31-28.
Responding, Nate Dane scored on a shot down low and John Shaffer scored on a drive at 4:40 to push the score to 35-28. A few seconds later, Hollidaysburg hit two free throws and followed that with another basket. With 2:11 to go, the Tigers hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 35, and then scored again with 1:30 to go ahead 37-35.
Kyle Updyke hit a shot for the Eagles at 1:11 to get back to a tie, but the Tigers got around the defense on the baseline to score a layup with 56 seconds left, and go ahead 39-37.
Tyrone called timeout with 22 seconds to go to set up a play, but on the game\’s final play, Shaffer tried to put up a shot in front of the basket. Although the Eagles thought his shot was interfered with, no call was made by the officials and Hollidaysburg won the game 39-37.
Ben Ingle and Kyle Updyke led the scoring with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Eagles fell to 19-3 on the season.
9th Grade
Hollidaysburg 39 Tyrone 37
Score by quarters
Tyrone 14 10 7 6 – 37
Hollidaysburg 3 12 10 14 – 39
Tyrone – Ingle 11, Updyke 10, Peterman 6, Dane 5, Shaffer 5
Simultaneously, on a court at the other end of Hollidaysburg\’s Junior High, the Tyrone eighth graders were playing a hard-fought game against the Tigers.
Jordan Taylor scored all six points for the Eagles in the first quarter, as the Eagles led 6-4.
But Hollidaysburg got more opportunities in the second quarter, as the Tigers outscored the Eagles 9-4 and took a 13-10 lead.
Tyrone resurged in the third period behind five points from Dillon McKeehan, and got within one point 21-20.
And then they tied the game in the fourth, 26-26, forcing an overtime.
Eric Desch and Shane Walker each hit a 3-pointer in the OT, but it wasn\’t enough as the Tigers held on to win 37-34.
The loss dropped the Tyrone eighth graders record to 19-5.
Eric Desch led Tyrone with 11 points.
8th Grade
Hollidaysburg 37 Tyrone 34
Score by quarters
Tyrone 6 4 10 6 8 – 34
Hollidaysburg 4 9 8 5 11 – 37
Tyrone – Desch 11, Taylor 8, McKeehan 6, Bryan 4, Walker 3, Riehart 2
This week, the Tyrone Junior High team traveled to Roaring Spring on Monday to take on the Central Scarlet Dragons. Then they will wrap up their season at home on Thursday, Feb. 16 against Clearfield.
