Lewistown outhustled and outworked Tyrone on the glass to score a 71-52 victory over Tyrone last night.
The Golden Eagles hung with the Panthers for a quarter and a half, actually leading by three after a quarter and holding their last lead at 25-24 with four minutes remaining in the first half, but all went downhill from there.
After scoring six first quarter points, Tyrone senior guard Tyler Mertiff was held scoreless in the second quarter and only scored four more the rest of the evening, finishing with 10 points.
“Seeing the box scores and seeing them play a couple times, we saw that he makes them tick,” said Lewistown coach Aaron Gingrich. “The better he plays, the more confidence the team gets and in turn they follow suit. We tried some different things to limit his looks and limit his easy opportunities and our guys executed that game plan pretty well throughout the game.”
Gingrich mixed up his defenses on Mertiff.
“I’m not going to give away all my secrets, but we had different people guarding Mertiff,” said Gingrich. “We threw a bunch of different looks at them, which I think worked for the most part, holding a great player like him to just 10 points. It was a very good job on our guys part. Mertiff is one of the better players in Central Pennsylvania and that is a testament to our kids carrying out a game plan.”
“They shut Tyler down,” said Tyrone coach Mike Harris. “They didn’t want the ball in Tyler’s hands and nobody else stepped up. We’ve got to have other guys step up. Tyler can’t score 75 a game. Other guys have to step up and start scoring. They have to look for their shot and take good shots that are in their range.”
Senior point guard Mike Ashcroft stepped up his game in the first half scoring 10 points in the first 12 minutes of the contest.
The Panthers used a 16-10 advantage in the second quarter to jump out to a three point halftime lead at 32-29. For the Eagles, being down by only three at the intermission was a blessing as Lewistown missed seven first half shots from within three feet.
“It could have been a lot worse than it was,” said Harris. “They missed a lot of layups and we didn’t box anybody out. They had to have been in double digits in offensive rebounds.”
The Golden Eagles ran into foul trouble in the first half. Junior center Brady Hoover picked up his second foul with 1:38 remaining in the first quarter and sat the remainder of the first half and Ashcroft picked up his third personal with 2:30 remaining in the first half.
“A lot of times our guys get called for fouls because they aren’t in the right position,” said Harris. “They reach in when they are trying to make something happen and there is no need to. Then it goes down the tubes. We have to do a better job disciplining ourselves in our defense and do the little things like box out and make our foul shots. We were at 50 percent for the night and five of those misses were the front end of one and ones.”
The Panthers increased their lead from three points at the half to seven points. During the first three minutes of the third quarter, Lewistown pulled down seven offensive rebounds. In an attempt to spark his team, Harris pulled his starters and put in the junior varsity players. When the starters went to the bench, the Lewistown lead was seven, after a 12-2 run, the Panthers held an 18 point lead at 53-35 when the starters returned.
“We felt in the first half we were on the edge of getting a little lead,” said Gingrich. “We were shooting ourselves in the foot many times. There weren’t many turnovers, but a lot of our turnovers led to their scores or missed easy shots led to their scores which kept them in the game. I thought in the third quarter, not only did we continue the good defense, but we finished plays off on both ends of the court, which in turn led to that run.”
After being outscored by Lewistown 24-8 in the third quarter, Tyrone played even with the Panthers in the fourth, but fell by 19 points, 71-52.
“We didn’t match their intensity in the second half,” said Harris. “We have to get back to work tomorrow and get it done.”
Brady Hoover led the Golden Eagles charge with 18 points, Ashcroft finished with 12 and Mertiff ended with 10. Lewistown was paced by senior Dan Moore and freshman Matt Hilton who had 17 points each.
Tyrone falls to 3-3 overall and 3-2 in the Mountain League. The Golden Eagles travel to Hollidaysburg for tournament action that starts Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. when they face Kiski Area.
“We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask what can we do to make this team better,” said Harris. “That goes for the coaches and the team. We have to come together and say to ourselves what can we do better to make this team better. That is what we have to do. Nobody is going to feel sorry for Tyrone.”
Senior Dan Grazier saw his first action of the season after recovering from his ankle injury during football season and sophomore Tad Chamberlain returned to the floor following his ankle injury suffered against Huntingdon.
“It was good to get them back,” said Harris. “We’re going to need them. It is a long season. It was good to get them a decent amount of minutes. It just wasn’t our night. Lewistown is a very good team, they are very well coached they were ready for us and we didn’t rise to the challenge.
Jayvees stay unbeaten
The Tyrone junior varsity improved to 6-0 on the season with a 42-41 victory over Lewistown.
Adam Hoover led the way with 19 points and Leonard Wilson added seven.
Nate Powell led the Panthers charge with 15.
Varsity
Lewistown 71, Tyrone 52
Score by quarters
Tyrone – 19 10 8 15 – 52
Lewistown – 16 16 24 15 – 71
Individual scoring
Tyrone: Mertiff 5 0-2 10, B. Hoover 6 6-9 18, Be. Gummo 1 2-3 44, Ashcroft 5 0-0 12, Chamberlain 0 0-2 0, Domenick 0 0-0 0, Grazier 0 0-3 0, A. Hoover 1 0-0 2, Wilson 1 2-2 4, Crabtree 0 0-0 0, Gherrity 1 0-0 2, Ba. Gummo 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 10-21 52.
Lewistown: Baker 0 0-1 0, Hartsock 5 0-0 10, Moore 7 3-6 17, Stewert 7 1-2 15, O’Donnell 4 0-0 8, Hilton 6 2-3 17, Heider 1 2-2 4, Powell 0 0-0 0, Hook 0 0-0 0, Tressler 0 0-0 0, Baker 0 0-0 0, Hartman 0 0-0 0. Totals: 30 8-14 71.
3pt. FG: FG: Tyrone 2 (Ashcroft 2); Lewistown 3 (Hilton 3).
Junior Varsity
Tyrone 42, Lewistown 41
Score by quarters
Tyrone – 10 8 17 7 – 42
Lewistown – 10 12 7 12 -41
Individual statistics
Tyrone – Hoover 9 1-1 19, Hershberger 1 0-0 2, Crabtree 1 2-4 4, Wilson 3 1-1 7, Ba. Gummo 2 0-0 4, Gherrity 2 0-2 4, Bayer 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 4-8 42.
Lewistown – Baker 2 2-2 6, Hilton 0 0-0 0, Goss 0 0-0 0, Powell 7 0-0 15, Hook 2 2-4 6, Zimmerman 2 0-0 6, Tressler 2 0-0 4, Kosmann 2 0-0 4. Totals: 17 4-6 41.
3pt. FG: Lewistown 3 (Zimmerman 2, Powell 1).
