After being beat by Hollidaysburg Saturday night in the second round of the Golden Tiger Roundball Classic, the Tyrone Golden Eagles lost to St. Maria Goretti 62-49. The Gales victory came courtesy of a third quarter rout, as Tyrone was outscored 20-6 in the quarter.
Things had looked good early on for the Golden Eagles, however, as senior captain Tyler Mertiff scored his 1,000th career point on his first shot of the game. The three pointer put the Golden Eagles up by a point 3 minutes into the contest and started a 9-2 run in favor of the orange and black.
Mertiff led all scorers with 22 points, and hit five three pointers for Tyrone.
Goretti was quick to respond, going on a 9-1 run in the final three minutes of the quarter to go up 15-12. They extended the run throughout the first five minutes of the second period, outscoring the Eagles 8-1. Mertiff hit two threes in a minute and a half for Tyrone, but his team was down at the half 29-21 after generating only 9 points in the second period.
The low Golden Eagle output was largely due to a quick Goretti team, who harassed Tyrone into turnovers throughout the game.
“They’re pretty good, and they’re pretty quick,” commented Tyrone Head Coach Mike Harris on the opposition. “They had their hands all over the ball out there tonight.”
Things only got worse for the Golden Eagles after the break, as they were the victims of a 20-6 third quarter in favor of Goretti. Part of the Tyrone slump could have been due to foul trouble, as standout junior Brady Hoover picked up his third foul only a minute into the half, before any points were even scored.
“That hurt us,” said Harris on his big man’s foul woes. “They (Goretti) did a pretty good job on him, they had the size to match up on him a little bit, and they had three guys boxing him out at a time.”
Despite picking up his third foul a minute into the second half and his fourth 5 minutes later, Hoover did not foul out and was able to contribute his third double-double in as many games.
Goretti started the third by scoring the first five points of the quarter. After Tyrone’s Mike Ashcroft buried a three, Goretti responded by rattling off 11 straight points. Mertiff contributed three points for the Golden Eagles in the remainder of the quarter, but Goretti put up 6 to go into the final quarter up big 49-27.
When asked about trying to fight back from such a big deficit Harris stated, “On a team like that, almost impossible. Our guys were a little tired after playing such a tough team last night. We were trying everything we could out there, we just ran out of gas there towards the end. We were outmatched tonight.”
Derrick Davis and Joey Breslin scored the first 14 points of the third quarter for Goretti, and combined for 31 points on the night.
Despite facing such a large lead, the Golden Eagles scrapped their way through the final quarter. Tyrone outscored St. Maria Goretti 22-13 in the fourth, and were aided by four three pointers. Mertiff nailed two shots from behind the arc, with Hoover and Barry Gummo each adding one.
“The guys who were out there at the end came in and battled back,” Harris said of the Golden Eagle’ effort in the final quarter. “They played with fire and aggression, and that’s what we want, that’s what we’re looking for.”
“We don’t lose in games like this,” continued Harris on his team’s performance in the tournament. “We’re smaller, we play all the big schools. We’re just not quite there yet overall. We have to keep working hard.”
After their 4th place finish at the Hollidaysburg tournament, the varsity Eagles take a break until their January 4th match up with Central at home. The jayvees will be playing in a junior varsity tournament at Indian Valley December 27th.
Semifinals-Saturday 6 p.m.
Hollidaysburg 66 Tyrone 61
After beating the Kiski Area Cavaliers in the opening game of the Golden Tiger Roundball Tournament, the Golden Eagles faced the Golden Tigers of Hollidaysburg. Hollidaysburg was coming off an 84-77 win over Columbia in the first round and used a second half comeback to defeat the Golden Eagles 66-61.
After the game, Tyrone Head Coach Mike Harris stressed the importance of playing tough teams. “It’s great for us, that’s what we have to do. We don’t lose in a game like this.”
The Golden Tigers were the Eagles’ second Quad A opponent in as many games and have only one loss so far this season.
Hollidaysburg came out swinging, scoring the first three points of the contest. Tyrone countered, with Tyler Mertiff hitting two foul shots and Mike Ashcroft stealing the ball and hitting a pull-up jumper to take the lead for the Golden Eagles. After a Tiger field goal, Mertiff and Hoover tacked on 4 more points for Tyrone before Hollidaysburg answered back with five. Mertiff then scored 6 points in 30 seconds for the Golden Eagles to wind down the first quarter, and Tyrone was up 14-12.
Mertiff finished as the game’s leading scorer with 25 points and added nine rebounds for Tyrone. With those 25 points, he is now 3 short of 1000 career points.
“He plays really well, he’s our team leader,” commented coach Harris on his senior guard. ”He did a great job tonight. He does everything on the floor, he plays as hard as he possibly can.”
Hollidaysburg started the second period by mirroring their performance in the opening moments of the game, taking the lead a minute into the quarter. Mertiff and Hoover answered by scoring the Golden Eagles’ next 8 points, which were part of a 14-4 run by Tyrone. After a Tiger field goal, Mertiff answered with a three pointer and Hoover added four points to put the Golden Eagles ahead 36-29 at the half.
“He’s tough to stop,” coach Harris said of Hoover’s consistent play for the Golden Eagles. “That’s the key, he’s so big he’s hard to stop.”
The Tyrone junior finished the game with 24 points and tallied 18 rebounds. It was Hoover’s second double-double of the tournament, and in his last two games he’s hauled in 37 rebounds for the Golden Eagles.
Hoover and Mertiff continued their dazzling play in the third quarter, scoring 10 of Tyrone’s 12 third quarter points. However, while Hoover and Mertiff were combining for most of the Golden Eagle offense, the Tigers were spreading the ball all over the place. Five different Tigers combined for 17 points in the third, which cut the Tyrone lead to two going into the final quarter.
“We just wanted to match-up,” stated Harris on trying to stop Hollidaysburg’s versatile offense. “We had match-up problems. It wasn’t a lack of effort on our part, they were just better. I told the kids to play their butts off, go out on the floor and whatever happens happens. They played their guts out, and I’m really proud of the way they played.”
The Golden Tiger offense kept rolling in the fourth, scoring 20 points in the closing quarter. Hollidaysburg outscored the Golden Eagles 8-4 in the first two minutes of the quarter, but after losing the lead Tyrone kept on fighting. Mertiff tied the game up when he faked a three pointer from the corner and drove down the baseline for the bucket. After three consecutive lead changes, Golden Eagle senior Dan Grazier was fouled and went to the line to shoot a one and one. With 2:34 left in the game, he tied the game with his first shot and regained the Tyrone lead with the second.
Grazier’s clutch foul shooting would create the last Tyrone lead, however, as the Golden Tigers went on an 8-2 run in the remaining minutes of the game.
“I thought we played really hard and left it all out on the floor,” stated Harris after the loss. “I’m very proud of everybody tonight. We practice like we played tonight, just get out there and play hard.”
After finishing the game with four players in double digit scoring, Hollidaysburg advances to the tournament finals against Altoona.
Consolation finals
St. Maria Goretti 62 Tyrone 49
Individual Scoring
TYRONE- Mertiff 8 1-5 22, B. Hoover 4 1-2 10, Be. Gummo 1 0-1 2, Ashcroft 2 0-0 5, A. Hoover 0 1-2 1, Wilson 1 4-4 6, Ba. Gummo 1 0-0 3.
ST. MARIA GORETTI- Nelson 1 0-0 2, Spierenburg 1 2-2 4, Davis 6 1-4 14, Breslin 5 4-6 17, Costello 1 4-4 6, Herman 2 4-4 8, Green 1 0-0 2, Turnetto 2 0-0 6, Hazenstab 1 1-2 3.
Score by Quarter
Tyrone 12 9 6 22 – 49
St. Maria Goretti 15 14 20 13 – 62
Three Point Goals: Tyrone-8 (Mertiff 5, B. Hoover 1, Ashcroft 1, Ba. Gummo 1); St. Maria Goretti-6 (Davis 1, Breslin 3, Turnetto 2)
Semifinals
Hollidaysburg 66 Tyrone 61
Individual Scoring
Tyrone- Mertiff 10 2-2 25, Hoover 8 8-10 24, Gummo 1 0-2 2, Ashcroft 2 0-0 4, Grazier 1 2-2 4, Wilson 0 2-2 2.
Hollidaysburg- Meadows 2 0-0 4, Sissler 3 5-6 17, Pugh 4 0-0 11, Griep 4 0-2 8, Brudvig 8 0-1 16, Delozier 5 0-2 10.
Score by Quarter
Tyrone 14 22 12 13 61
Hollidaysburg 12 17 17 20 66
3 Point Goals: Tyrone 1 (Mertiff 1); Hollidaysburg 3 (Sissler 2, Pugh 1)
