The Tyrone girls basketball team has had a lot of success against Bald Eagle Area under head coach Jim Swaney, but the Lady Eagles have never found it easy to play at Wingate.
There’s something about the 45-minute trip that has confounded even the best Lady Eagle teams, so last night’s painfully slow start against BEA’s 2-1-2 zone – Tyrone managed just two points in the first quarter – while frustrating for Swaney, may have been expected.
But that doesn’t erase the facts: the Lady Eagles’ dreadful beginning was the deciding factor in letting a 3-9 team that had won just one game since before Christmas off the hook. Despite a valiant fourth-quarter comeback that saw the Tyrone rally from an eight-point deficit, the Lady Eagles lost 43-42 when BEA sophomore Carina Struble made one foul shot with no time remaining on the clock.
The loss was Tyrone’s third in its last four games and it dropped the Lady Eagles (5-8 overall) to 1-6 in Section II of the Mountain Athletic Conference. BEA, meanwhile, improved to 3-3 in the MAC and 4-9 overall.
The score was knotted at 42-42 when BEA had the ball out of bounds on the sideline with 8.8 seconds remaining. When Bald Eagles’ first and second options – top scorers Tierney Campbell and Megan Garner – couldn’t get the ball, it ended up in the hands of Struble, who drove baseline and got a shot off just as the buzzer sounded.
The official on the baseline called a foul on Tyrone’s Ashley Roth, which led to questions at the scorer’s table as to whether the buzzer sounded before or after Struble was fouled. After a brief discussion with the official timekeeper, the officials sent Struble to the line with zeroes showing on the scoreboard, and she calmly sank her first free throw attempt to give her team the win.
But in the final analysis, the game-ending drama should have never been necessary. BEA turned the ball over 23 times and shot just 32.6 percent from the floor. In a crucial fourth quarter when Bald Eagle tried desperately to spread the floor and run clock, BEA managed just eight points and went scoreless for the final 4:04 until Struble’s heroics.
Led by senior Hilary McNelis, who scored 10 of her game-high 26 in the final frame – including the game-tying shot with 1:10 remaining – Tyrone tried to make BEA’s fourth quarter gaffs mean something, but it was an uphill battle, considering the way the Lady Eagles started the game.
In the first quarter, Tyrone hit just 1 of 11 from the field – a lay-up inside by Ashley Roth – turned the ball over nine times and trailed 9-2 thanks to seven points from Garner, who time and again managed to penetrate the paint. McNelis and Emily Ingle both spent most of the period on the bench after picking up two personal fouls apiece.
The lead grew to 10 (12-2) at the start of the second quarter on a three-pointer by Campbell, but McNelis returned to score eight points and pull Tyrone within 21-15 at halftime.
McNelis scored eight of Tyrone’s 13 in the third quarter as the Lady Eagles cut the lead to three (24-21) at the 5:05 mark, but BEA’s lead went up to seven by the end of the period when Tyrone found trouble corralling defensive rebounds. Bald Eagle shot just 6-for-17 in the period, but scored three times on offensive put-backs to lead 35-28.
It took Tyrone all of the fourth quarter to even the score, which it did following an 8-0 capped with three consecutive McNelis baskets inside.
The Lady Eagles had possession only one time with the score tied, and that series ended in a traveling violation.
HOOP NOTES: Roth put together her most solid game of the season with eight points, five rebounds and five steals … Ingle had six steals, despite sitting out all of the third quarter with fouls … Campbell led BEA with 17 points, and Garner added 15 … the Lady Eagles were 6-for-13 in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over just twice … Tyrone closes the MAC first cycle Friday at home against Philipsburg-Osceola.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Stefani Bryan led a balanced Tyrone scoring attack with a game-high 11 points as Tyrone’s jayvees defeated Bald Eagle 54-26.
Liz Tepsic and Megan Turiano each scored nine for the Lady Eagles, who received scoring contributions from nine different players.
Bald Eagle Area 43 Tyrone 42
TYRONE – McKenna 2 0-0 5; Ingle 0 0-0 0; Lloyd 1 1-2 3; Hoover 0 0-0 0; McNelis 13 0-0 26; Roth 2 4-5 8; Bradford 0 0-0 0; Bryan 0 0-0 0; Long 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18 5-7 42.
BALD EAGLE AREA – M. Garner 7 1-3 15; Campbell 7 0-0 17; C. Garner 1 2-7 4; Kilmer 0 0-0 0; Shaw 0 0-0 0; Reese 1 0-2 2; Struble 1 3-3 5; Fisher 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18 6-12 43.
Score by Quarters
TYRONE 2 13 13 14 – 42
BALD EAGLE 9 12 14 8 – 43
Three point goals: Tyrone 1 (McKenna 1).
Bald Eagle Area 3 (Campbell 3).
JUNIOR VARSITY
Tyrone 54 Bald Eagle Area 26
Tyrone – Bryan 4 0-0 11; Tepsic 3 3-3 9; Turiano 3 3-4 9; Garbinsky 2 0-0 6; Long 2 0-0 4; Christine 1 3-3 5; Russell 1 0-0 3; Walker 0 0-0 0; Corle 2 1-1 5; Bartlebaugh 0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 19 12-13 54.
Bald Eagle Area – Weaver 1 0-0 2; Geidroc 1 1-2 3; Shaw 3 0-0 6; Doran 2 3-5 7; McCloskey 1 2-2 4; Lucas 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 10 6-11 26.
Score by Quarters
Tyrone 15 18 11 10 – 54
Bald Eagle Area 10 3 7 6 – 26
Three-point goals: Tyrone 6 (Bryan 3, Garbinsky 2, Russell 1).
