For most of the 32 minutes in last night’s Mountain League girls basketball game between Tyrone and Bald Eagle Area, the tempo was similar to rush hour traffic in mid-town Manhattan.
The teams combined on 34 turnovers, 41 foul shots and enough jump balls to break the swith on the possession arrow at Tyrone Area High School gymnasium.
But there was a five minute spurt in the second quarter when the tempo belonged to Tyrone – when the Lady Eagles were able to force turnovers, get into the open court, and run BEA off the floor. It resulted in an 18-0 run that put Tyrone ahead 33-11 at halftime.
Tyrone went on to win the game 65-39 and improve to 4-3 overall heading into the Souderton Holiday Tournament next Friday.
Ironically, Tyrone’s second quarter run began following a tenuous moment when starting point guard Amber DelBaggio twisted her ankle after stepping on the foot of a BEA player after whistle had blown. The injury came just one minute after Marie DelBaggio had gone to the bench with three presonal fouls.
That forced freshman Emily McKenna to assume full-time point guard duties and it brought junior Kylie Wallace off the bench in place of Marie DelBaggio.
McKenna responded by scoring four of her career-high eight in the last five minutes of the first half, while Wallace recorded two steals, one assist and two points.
But at the center of Tyrone’s run was senior post Joanna Turner, who started it with a 3-point field goal and scored eight of the Lady Eagles 18 unanswered. She finished with a game-high 26 points and 12 rebounds.
“McKenna and Turner gave us a real lift in the second quarter,” said Tyrone coach Jim Swaney. “When Amber went down, it was a nervous moment, but it gave McKenna a chance and she’s been getting better and better each week. There’s nobody better than Joanna Turner when she comes to play and Kylie did a nice job coming off the bench to give us a spark. She’s an athlete but with our schedule it’s been hard to find her the minutes she needs. Hopefully she’ll start to get them over the next couple of weeks.”
The Lady Eagles harassed Bald Eagle into 11 turnovers in the second quarter with half- and full-court pressure and scored 13 points off of BEA miscues.
Marie DelBaggio rebounded from a foul-ridden first half to score 13 points – 11 of which came in the third and fourth quarters – and grab nine rebounds.
Hilary McNelis chipped in seven points and eight boards and Amber DelBaggio finished with nine assists.
But despite some nice individual and team numbers – Tyrone’s defense registered its season-low in points surrendered – they at times were impatient in their offense and slow in getting to the glass.
It allowed BEA, an 0-9 team playing without star Angela Hoover who’s out for the season with a torn ACL, to hang around for most of the first half and even lead in the second quarter 10-9.
“Are we a good team yet? No,” Swaney said. “We turn the ball over way too many times, we don’t rebound with consistency and we don’t play with intensity all the time.”
But following a stretch of four games in seven days headlined by a tough loss to Lewistown Tuesday, the effort Tyrone mustered against winless BEA was enough.
“I would have liked to be 5-2 right now,” Swaney said. “I really thought we should have beat BG at home, had it not been for a really poor first half. I knew we had a good shot at beating Indian Valley after seeing them play.”
HOOP NOTES: Tyrone turned the ball over 15 times … Marie DelBaggio fouled out for the sixth time in seven games … Vickie DeFrate led BEA, which fell to 0-5 in the Mountain League, with 15 points … Turner is averaging 14.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game … Tyrone returns home on Saturday, January 4, for a boys-girls double-header against Central. The game is scheduled as Tyrone Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Night with Craig Fleming, Sarah Grazier and Meagan DelBaggio slated for induction.
JUNIOR VARSITY
The Tyrone jayvees led Bald Eagle 20-17 in the fourth quarter but couldn’t hold their edge as BEA battled back to outscore the Lady Eagles 16-7 in the frame and win 33-25.
Kylie Wallace led Tyrone with six points and Marissa Hoover added five points and seven rebounds.
VARSITY
BALD EAGLE AREA – Koshko 3 1-2 7; Shaw 0 0-2 0; DeFrate 4 7-14 15; Lyle 3 1-2 7; Robison 1 1-2 3; Reese 0 0-0 0; Kader 2 1-2 5; Miller 1 0-0 2; Garner 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 11-24 39
3-POINT FIELD GOALS: DeFrate (1)
TYRONE – M. DelBaggio 5 0-2 13; Turner 9 7-8 26; A. DelBaggio 0 0-0 0; Haag 4 0-0 9; McNelis 3 1-2 7; McKenna 4 0-0 8; Wallace 0 2-2 2; Stanton 0 0-3 0; Bryan 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 25 10-17 65
3-POINT GOAL: Turner (1), M. DelBaggio (2), Haag (1)
BALD EAGLE – 8 3 14 12 – 39
TYRONE – 9 24 13 19 – 65
JUNIOR VARSITY
BALD EAGLE AREA – Garner 5 3-5 14; Penland 1 1-2 3; Garner 1 7-10 9; Rees 0 2-2 2; Fisher 1 0-0 2; Kilmer 1 0-0 2; Emigh 0 1-3 1. TOTALS: 9 14-22 33
TYRONE – McKenna 1 0-0 2; Wallace 1 4-6 6; Stanton 1 0-2 2; Roth 1 0-2 2; Ingle 1 1-2 3; Hoover 2 1-2 5; Lewis 1 0-0 2; Russell 1 1-2 3; Taylor 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9 6-16 25
BALD EAGLE – 6 5 6 16 – 33
TYRONE – 7 6 5 7 – 25
