After upsetting Philipsburg Osceola on Tuesday, Tyrone moved forward into the second round to take on the heavily favored Bobcats of Blairsville. Anything can happen in the playoffs, and any team can win.
The game started out a little different than Blairsville had expected. Tyrone exploded out to a 10-4 lead with three minutes to go in the first quarter, despite missing several peep shots. The Bobcats were lucky to be trailing by only six at this point.
Blairsville fought back, scoring a couple buckets, cutting the lead to 13-9 going into the second quarter. This was a shock to Tyrone and the fans, which gave Tyrone all the momentum in the world. They were excited and to see the look in the Bobcats eyes was astonishing. The Eagles woke up the giant and were not going to back down the rest of the game.
“The way we came out of the gates is what we were anticipating,” head coach George Gripp said. “What we weren\’t anticipating was missing those easy shots. We did have the lead, but we should have been up by 15 or 16 points after the first quarter.”
The second quarter showed Blairsville\’s true colors as they relied on their leading scorer, Andy Ostach, who absolutely scorched Tyrone for 18 points in the second quarter. This sparked a 17-5 run, giving the Bobcats a 26-18 lead with less than two minutes to go in the half. What an amazing effort for Blairsville on defense as they forced six Tyrone turnovers and converted on almost every offensive transition.
Now on their heels, Tyrone needed an answer to this explosive run, but the wheels weren\’t rolling as they went into the half down 34-20. Tyrone had their chance, but that chance was quickly fading away.
“We weren\’t getting back on defense and we seemed to stop around the three-point line when they moved their fast break,” said Gripp. “We struggled to box out and didn’t close out like we should have, which gave them a lot of easy looks in the second quarter.”
Johnny Franco struck first in the second half with an explosion to the basket for two points, but the Bobcats managed to pull a 7-0 run, giving them their biggest lead of the game, 41-22. It looked as if Tyrone was ready to throw in the towel, but they found a spark in their defense and began to stop Ostach and the streaky offense of Blairsville.
Behind Franco, Tyrone was able to pull off a 13-4 run to end the third quarter, making it 45-35, giving them hope for a comeback in the fourth quarter.
After a few minutes into the fourth, Tyrone and Blairsville went back and forth until Tyrone finally cut it to 50-43 with 5:25 left in the game. The Tyrone fans were behind the team 100% and kept the noise a factor as the Eagles had a look in their eye that was destined for victory.
The game was now closer than what the Bobcats were expecting, after leading by 19 points at one point, it was back down to seven. Tyrone threw everything they had at this team, but could not get by the one-two-two defensive set, giving up key possessions on turnovers and allowing Blairsville to continue to score on bonus free throws.
Tyrone had their chance, but after several Blairsville free throws and baskets, the Eagles just ran out of gas, losing a heartbreaker, 70-53.
“The guys were excited, we had them on the ropes,\” Gripp stated. “We had a couple of close ten second calls and didn\’t cover the open passes that led to easy lay-ups. Everyone in the gym knew how close the game actually was compared to what the scoreboard read and I\’m proud of the players for sticking with it the entire game.”
Tyrone falls hard to the Bobcats for the third straight season in a row. Franco led Tyrone, Friday night, with a career high 19 points. The junior was explosive to the basket and really proved he could carry the offense when Catich wasn\’t in the game. Catich also chipped in 11 points, despite scoring six points in the first quarter. Ostach played outstanding defense against Catich and forced Tyrone to use the rest of the players to beat them.
Blairsville moves ahead to play Penns Valley in the semi-finals next week. The Bobcats took the lead in the second quarter and never looked back as Ostach led all scorers with 30 points. The senior picked up 18 of those 30 in the second quarter alone. Caleb Fritz also chipped in 12 points along with Kenny Fatino\’s 10.
“We lost some tough games this season, but we had a stretch where we were 7-4 and almost evened it back up. If we win some of the close games earlier in the year, we wouldn\’t be placed into this situation. We liked our seed and side of the bracket and could have very easily gone to Saint Francis. I thought whoever won this game tonight was going to move on to the finals, and it will be a hard pill to swallow if this team wins the championship because that very easily could have been us,” Gripp said about the overall performance in the season finale.
Blairsville 70 Tyrone 53
Tyrone – Dane 2 3-5 7, Franco 8 3-5 19, Brooks 4 0-0 8, Catich 4 1-2 11, Gehret 3 0-1 6, Branstetter 0 2-2 2. Totals 21 9-15 53
Blairsville -Ostach 10 9-11 30, Fritz 4 3-4 12. Manarelli 3 1-2 8, Gunder 4 0-0 8, Fatino 3 4-4 10, Williams 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 17-21 70
Tyrone 13 7 15 18 – 53
Blairsville 9 25 11 25 – 70
Three-point goals: Tyrone-2 (Catich)
Blairsville-3 (Ostach, Fritz, Manarelli)
