For the past four seasons, Tyrone has not beaten Lewistown. It is always a rough game for Tyrone, but it is even worse when traveling to Lewistown to play. After losing to Indian Valley in their previous game, the Panthers dropped just their third gane coming into Monday night’s game. It was a time to see if Tyrone’s intensity from the Philipsburg game would carry over into Lewistown as they looked to get back on track after a slow start.
Tyrone was at it early as Shane Barr took the tip-off to the other end for an easy lay-up. An early score from Tyrone might have been the spark the Eagles needed.
After a Dan Lauder lay-up, Tyrone would score the next 13 points going on top 15-2. With three triples from Byron Kost and a couple of lay-ups from Johnny Franco and Trey Brockett, Tyrone found themselves in a very comfortable position early in the game.
Matt Hilton finally broke the 13-0 run at 2:48 as he nailed a long two, just inside the arc. This did not faze Tyrone as Leonard Wilson took it coast-to-coast for another easy Tyrone lay-up. It was 17-4 with 2:26 to go in the first quarter. It was almost like the Panthers were helpless as Tyrone kept pounding points into their defense.
As time ran down in the first quarter, Mike Baker put his first two of his nine points from the free-throw line to cut the score to 17-6 with 1:58 to go. After a couple of possessions from each team, Matt Hilton found an open seam in Tyrone’s defense as he busted wide open down the lane for an easy lay-in.
Tyrone only up 17-8 had a chance to knock in a last-second shot as Barr dribbled the length of the floor and made a sweet kick-out to Kost for his fourth trey of the first quarter that put the Eagles ahead 20-8 after one quarter.
Tyrone completely dominated the Panthers on both offense and defense as Kost seemed unstoppable from the outside putting up 12 of Tyrone’s 20 points in the first quarter.
Lewistown had to make some adjustments as most great teams do to make a comeback. With Kost dominating outside of the arc, Tyrone suddenly had a threat that Lewistown had to be aware of to stay in comeback range. As the second quarter went underway, Hilton and the Panthers went into an 3-2 extended zone to try and stop the outside shot.
Tyrone attacked the zone perfectly to start the second quarter as Steve Catich drove baseline for an easy lay-up to put Tyrone up 22-8 early in the second quarter.
On the ensuing possession, Eric Doebler recorded a bucket “and-one” to cut the lead to 11, which was still a big deficit for Lewistown to cover.
After the “and-one,” Tyrone scored the next four points, three from Catich and a foul shot from Wilson to put Tyrone back up to a 26-11 lead, their largest deficit of the night. With 5:51 left in the first half, Hilton was at it again, hitting another runner in the lane to chip away at the lead some more.
After a tipped pass from Catich, Baker took the ball coast-to-coast for the bucket and the foul for the three-point play.
Tyrone worked for a shot on the next possession, but came up short as Lewistown got the rebound out to Hilton who missed a lay-in, but Casey Zimmerman was there to pick up the foul where he nailed one of two. The score was suddenly 26-17, a 6-0 run from the Panthers gave them some room to comeback, but it was still a long way to go.
With 4:41 to go, Wilson crossed Chris Tressler over two times before taking him to the rack for two of his 20 points, putting Tyrone back up 11. After a failed attempt at a three-point attempt from Hilton, Tyrone sprinted up the court as Catich was fouled hard going up for the lay-up. Hitting one of two again, Tyrone went on top 29-17 with just 4:15 to go in the half.
They were controlling the pace of the game and showing intensity and heart on the floor. Hilton seemed frustrated as he picked up a couple of cheap fouls throughout the first half with the frustration showing on his face. Tyrone’s game plan was working to perfection as the All-time Leading scorer in Lewistown was held to just 11 points in the first half.
Both teams finished the half trading buckets, but Tyrone had the upper-hand in the game as they went into the locker room up 34-24, a very comfortable lead for the underdog, Tyrone.
“Our defense is outstanding right now,” Tyrone coach Mike Harris stated. “Guys are buying into what we’re telling them and are really working hard at the defensive end. Offensively we’re doing a lot better. They know exactly where they have to be at all times and are starting to understand what a good shot is and when to take it. They are playing unselfish Golden-Eagle basketball.”
With the momentum swinging wildly toward Tyrone, the Eagles looked to put the Panthers away early in the second half. Lewistown jumped into their extended 3-2 zone, only this time they had a floater watching Kost which allowed the middle to be wide open to pass to.
Tyrone used their triangle offense to work the ball around for the first minute and a half into the third quarter as Wilson found a lane for another lay-up. This put Tyrone up 12 (36-24) with 6:35 to go in the third, running their offense at their own pace and controlling the clock.
Lewistown had the offense to make a comeback, and they started to do just that as they chipped away, slowly, at the deficit in the third quarter. Baker scored the first points of the third quarter for the Panthers, but Wilson answered right back as he would hit one of two free throws to make the score 37-26.
Tyrone’s didn’t give up the lead the entire game, and they weren’t about to give it up in the third quarter.
On the next possession, Hilton nailed a trey and a lay-up to cut the lead to just six points (37-31) with 4:07 to go. It looked as if Tyrone’s defense was lacking the intensity in the first half, but the Eagles wisely called a timeout to slow the offense down from Lewistown.
With 3:33 to go, Elliot Searer checked into the game and made two quick moves passed his defender to cut the lead to just four points (37-33). It was a 7-3 run, which cut the monstrous deficit down to four. The Panther fans became aware of their comeback as they stood on their feet as they finally had something good to yell about at the game.
Wilson quickly silenced the crowd with 3:06 left in the third as he drove by Tressler for another lay-up to put the Eagles back up six.
The Panther defense definitely stepped it up as they would hold the Eagles to just nine third quarter points as they cut the lead to 43-36 at the end of three.
The fourth quarter was a battle, Tyrone had a seven point lead going into it as they came out firing once again. The Eagles kept on top of the Panthers as Catich matched six points for the Panthers to start off the fourth quarter making it 49-42. The Eagles began to pour it on from there, as they tore off an 8-3 run to go up 57-45 with 3:34 to go in the game.
It looked as though Tyrone had the game pretty much wrapped up until Lewistown started rolling their offense into high gear as they moved into a 9-5 run to cut the lead to 61-56 with 1:27 to go in the game. The Eagles were in trouble, however, as Wilson had fouled out with just under 2:00 to go in the game. Wilson scored 20 points for Tyrone and controlled the ball up the floor. Without him, Tyrone seemed to struggle terribly as they turned the ball over three times in the last minute of the game.
With 1:01 left in the game, Tressler took the ball coast-to-coast for the lay-up to cut the lead to 61-58. As Tyrone struggled with the ball-handling, Franco was finally fouled with 44 seconds left in the game. After sinking one of two, Tyrone went up 62-58 as Hilton managed another mid-range bank-shot from the right side to cut the lead to 62-60 with just :36 seconds left in the game.
With the crowd anticipating a wild finish from both sides of the game, Tyrone found themselves having trouble once again bringing the ball in bounds as Catich nearly gave up the go ahead bucket to Hilton, but he missed an easy lay-up with :10 seconds left. After a Tyrone timeout, Catich in-bounded the ball to Kost who lost control of the ball and fell on it, the whistle blew as Kost left his foot on the line, giving the Panthers a chance to take the lead with 6.3 seconds left.
As Franco face-guarded Hilton on the in-bound, the Panthers tried to force it in to Hilton, but a jump ball was the call as Franco and Hilton tied it up and the possession was with the Eagles. The fans roared from Tyrone as they knew they had a great chance to knock off a top opponent.
After a quick foul with 3.1 seconds left, Kost went to the line where he made one of two to put the Eagles up 63-61. With time running down, Baker attempted a half-court desperation shot that came up long as Tyrone knocked off the heavily-favored Panthers.
“The past two games we have been a totally different basketball team,” Harris stated. “We have been playing with that Tyrone intensity level that we know we can play. Our defense has been impressive lately and we’re definitely going to be a different team than what we were last game against Bald Eagle Area this Friday night.”
Tyrone improves their record to 6-7 and 4-3 in the conference. Wilson and Catich both lit up 20 points as Kost chipped in 14 with four treys.
Hilton scored 24 for the Panthers despite their second straight loss Monday night against Tyrone.
Tyrone 63 Lewistown 61
Tyrone – Wilson 7 6-9 20, Catich 7 6-8 20, Kost 4 2-4 14, Barr 1 0-0 2, Brockett 2 0-0 4, Franco 1 1-2 3, Corle 0 0-0 0, Morrow 0 0-0 0, Hoover 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 15-23 63.
Lewistown – Baker 2 5-5 9, Hilton 9 3-4 24, Tressler 2 6-8 10, Lauder 1 0-0 2, Doebler 1 1-1 3, Searer 3 0-0 6, Zimmerman 2 3-4 7, Fagan 0 0-1 0. Totals 20 18-23 61.
Score by Quarters
Tyrone 20 14 9 20 – 63
Lew istown 8 16 12 25 – 61
Three-point goals: Tyr-4(Kost-4) Lew-3(Hilton-3)
Tyrone Jayvee can’t match offense
Wade Branstetter led Tyrone with 14 points, but they could not stop Elliot Searer with his 20 points and their quick defense. The Eagles lost 55-40 Monday night.
