The Tyrone Golden Eagles gave Coach George Gripp his first varsity win against a scrappy Bellefonte Red Raider team Tuesday night at Tyrone.
Steve Catich sank two free throws as the game started with a technical foul (book error) and then Brandon Gehret drained a three from the corner as The Eagles jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead.
Bellefonte lived at the charity stripe in a mistake filled first quarter with Tyrone committing five fouls and Bellefonte amassing 10 turnovers.
Catich hit a trey and Matt Brooks had the hot hand early with the next six points.
Bellefonte’s first seven points were from the line as Tyrone led 16-11 after one period.
The second period was almost identical as the Raiders committed eight turnovers and Tyrone sent Bellefonte to the line five more times. Doug Morrow stepped up to score four points and Catich hit another three and Tyrone led by as many as 11 points as Bellefonte missed five of their last six free throws.
Tyrone led 33-23 at the half.
“We played hard, but need to take care of the ball better”, said Coach Gripp.
The second half started out slow but Brandon Gehret gave Tyrone its biggest lead of the night (37-24) with a “baby hook” four minutes into the second half.
Just when the lead seemed safe, Bellefonte’s Phil Guinta took over as he scored 16 of his game high 20 points over the next quarter and a half. He put the team on his shoulders and the Red Raiders fought their way back into the game to pull within three points with 3:10 to play.
“We knew it was coming, we made too many mistakes but we played hard and deserved to win. We got the football players back and they need to get their legs in shape and we’ll go from there”, Gripp added.
Tyrone is now 1-1 and is off till next Tuesday when they travel to Lewistown.
Junior Varsity: Tyrone’s junior varsity team upped its record to 2-0 with a convincing 55-28 victory.
Tyrone bolted to a 29-12 halftime lead as Ethan Etters (nine points) and Nathan Dane (12 points) provided the scoring.
Dane controlled the boards and Travis Peterman added nine points.
Zach Tressler led Bellefonte with nine points.
Eagle bits: Bellefonte had 25 turnovers, Tyrone had 22. Bellefonte made its first 11 free throws. Tyrone only shot eight free throws all night.
Tyrone 52 Bellefonte 48
Score by quarters
Bellefonte 11 12 10 15 – 48
Tyrone 16 17 6 13 – 52
Tyrone – Catich 6 2-4 16, Branstetter 2 0-2 5, Brooks 4 0-1 8, Morrow 3 0-0 6, Etters 1 0-0 2, Gehret 4 0-1 9, Updyke 1 0-0 2, Franco 2 0-0 4. Totals 23 2-8 52.
Bellefonte – Guinta 9 2-3 20, Irwin 1 5-8 7, Tressler 1 0-0 3, Glunt 1 3-3 6, Leathers 2 2-2 6, Rosenbarry 0 1-4 1, Johnson 1 3-4 5. Totals 15 16-24 48.
Three point goals: Bellefonte 2 (Tressler, Glunt)
Tyrone 4 (Catich 2, Branstetter, Gehret)
