Fresh off an 84 point outing in their previous game, the Tyrone Golden Eagles hit the road for the final time this regular season and came out of Clearfield with a 41 point victory. The win is Tyrone’s second in as many games, and the Golden Eagles are now 12-10 with one game remaining until the playoffs.
The visiting Eagles didn’t wait long to start the rout, jumping out to a 7-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game. Brady Hoover started the scoring only nine seconds into the contest, with Tyler Mertiff supplying the run’s other four points.
The Bisons finally got on the board at the 5:40 mark when Carl Dearing buried a three-pointer. Clearfield would not find the hoop for another two minutes, and in that time the Golden Eagles scored six points. Again Hoover started the run, while Ben Gummo took two Mertiff inbounds passes straight to the hoop for the other four points.
After a Bison field goal made the score 11-6, the Eagles went on yet another run. This time it was a 9-0 run, fueled by three-point plays by Mertiff and Hoover. Mike Ashcroft and Gummo added three successful foul shots, and after a Bison bucket the first quarter ended with Tyrone up big 22-7.
“We wanted to go up on these guys early,” stated Tyrone Head Coach Mike Harris of his team’s first quarter performance. “When you play teams that are struggling you have to put them away early, you don’t want them hanging around and gaining momentum.”
Throughout the second quarter, Tyrone’s starters gradually made their way to the bench due to the big lead. Leonard Wilson opened the quarter by converting two foul shots, and after Hoover was successful on a three-point play the Eagles held a 20 point advantage. For the next two minutes the squads trades scores, with Dan Domenick chalking up four points on as many free throws.
Clearfield was not ready to go away, however. The Bisons went on a 10-0 run in the waning minutes of the half, with nine of those points coming on three-pointers. Dearing, Rob Kulling, and Jim Collins each had a three on the run, which cut the lead down to ten. Gummo managed to put down two foul shots for the Eagles, but Clearfield had made their way back in the game.
“The guys that were in the game didn’t do the job,”Harris said when asked about Clearfield’s run in the second. “That’s what we talked about at halftime. When you’re out there playing varsity basketball it’s not the time to go out and do whatever you want to do.”
The jayvee players Harris spoke of would get another chance, but not until the Golden Eagle starters came back into the game to start the second half. A deep two by Ashcroft started the third quarter scoring, with a Mertiff three-point play and two Wilson foul shots completing a 7-0 run in favor of Tyrone.
In fact, the third quarter mirrored the first, as it turned out to be one long run in favor of the Golden Eagles. Dearing matched Wilson’s free throws with two of his own, but Tyrone came back with consecutive buckets. Dearing sank another two foul shots with 4:57 remaining in the quarter, but Domenick and Ashcroft fired back with a bucket a piece. Kulling then stepped up and nailed his second three-pointer of the game for the Bisons, but as Tyrone’s starters began filing out of the game the rest of the team answered with a 9-2 run to close out the third period up 57-30.
Along with the lopsided lead the Golden Eagles went into the final quarter with a jayvee lineup on the floor. And because those junior varsity players were eager to make up for a shaky second quarter performance, Tyrone would only pull further away. The Golden Eagle jayvees scored 17 points in the quarter, while holding the Bisons’ starting lineup to a mere five points. Shane Gherrity had six points in the quarter, while Kevin Hershberger and Nick Cushion each hit a three pointer. Tad Chamberlain and Adam Hoover each hauled in four rebounds in the fourth as well.
“I thought they did a real nice job,” Harris said of the performance of his jayvees. “They played real hard, they played smart. They did all the little things right.”
“We didn’t want to play down to their level,” stated Harris. “We want to get ready for the playoffs, they’re a week away today.”
Prior to the varsity contest the Tyrone jayvees were victorious in their game with the Bisons. The junior varsity Eagles counted on a 28-12 first half for the 40-34 win. Adam Hoover led all scorers with 10 points, helping his team in upping their record to 15-4.
Tyrone 74 Clearfield 35
Individual Scoring
TYRONE- Mertiff 4 2-2 10, B. Hoover 4 3-4 11, Ashcroft 3 2-2 8, Be. Gummo 2 3-5 7, Wilson 2 6-8 10, Domenick 1 4-4 6, A. Hoover 0 0-2 0, Hershberger 1 0-0 3, Gherrity 3 0-0 6, Chamberlain 2 4-6 8, Cushion 1 1-2 4, Crabtree 0 0-0 0, Haney 0 1-4 1. TOTALS 23 26-39 74.
CLEARFIELD- Kulling 2 1-2 7, Collins 5 4-4 15, Dearing 3 1-2 9, Davis 0 0-0 0, Valenzo 0 0-0 0, Kelly 1 0-0 2, Meckey 0 0-0 0, J. Davis 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 12 6-8 35
Score By Quarter
Tyrone 23 11 24 17 – 74
Clearfield 7 14 9 5 – 35
Three-Point goals: Tyrone 2 (Hershberger 1, Domenick 1); Clearfield 7 (Kulling 2, Collins 1, Dearing 2)
