Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades was sure his team\u2019s lack of speed and size would force him to be a zone coach in his first year with the Lady Eagles.
\nBut a string of poor play before the Christmas break forced Rhoades to reconsider his approach. The Lady Eagles went exclusively to man-to-man defense starting with their holiday tournament, and after last night\u2019s 49-34 win over Bald Eagle Area in Wingate, they\u2019re 2-1 since adopting the new philosophy.
\nIn fact, last night the Lady Eagles played like a team ready to embrace man defense. Tyrone defended full-court and forced 25 turnovers and limited BEA to 14-of-52 shooting to improve to 4-7 overall and 1-5 in MAC Division 2 play.
\nIn turn, their defensive effort was rewarded by better looks the offensive end in their second-highest output of the season. Senior Meg Turiano scored a career- and game-high 13 points, while classmate Liz Tepsic netted 12 to go along with 13 rebounds.
\n\u201cI told Megan after the game she played one heck of a game,\u201d said Rhoades. \u201cShe came in off the bench and did her job, and she did it well.\u201d
\nFreshman point guard Rachel Emigh may have had the biggest impact on the game, despite scoring only six points. Her ability to defend from end to end changed the tempo for Bald Eagle Area, while her comfort running Tyrone\u2019s offense was a major factor in the Lady Eagles\u2019 season-low nine turnovers.
\n\u201cAll of our girls, Rachel and Brooke (Garbinsky) especially, did a great job on their guards, which is important,\u201d Rhoades said. \u201cIf you stop their guards, it makes passes tough. So when we can play man like this, it really helps us.\u201d
\nThe Lady Eagles trailed BEA 10-8 after the first quarter, but Tepsic and Kayla Corle combined to lead Tyrone on a 9-2 run to take a 17-12 lead by the 4:12 mark. BEA battled back behind post Brittany Doran and tied the game at 19 by halftime.
\nTyrone took command with a 9-0 run to end the third quarter. Trailing 26-23, Turiano scored inside to pull the Lady Eagles within one, Emigh netted a hoop on the baseline, Garbinsky nailed a three and Corle scored on a drive with 26 seconds left to make it 33-26.
\nOver the first 4:05 of the fourth, Tyrone outscored BEA 13-2 to put the game away. The highlight of the run came on three consecutive Bald Eagle possessions that ended in steals and lay-ups for the Lady Eagles. Tepsic had two, sandwiched around another by Emigh.
\n\u201cWe played good solid defense, which translated into a lot of offensive opportunities,\u201d said Rhoades. \u201cWe didn\u2019t shoot the ball well, but it\u2019s tough to come down here, and it\u2019s a tough place to play.\u201d
\nWith 10 points, Katherine Hoover was the top scorer for BEA, which fell to 2-7 and 1-6.
\n TYRONE 49 BALD EAGLE AREA 34
\nTYRONE \u2013 Tepsic 6 0-0 12; Turiano 6 1-3 13; Corle 3 1-4 8; Faretta 1 0-0 2; Garbinsky 2 0-0 5; Emigh 3 0-0 6; Harden 1 1-2 3. TOTALS: 22 3-8 49.
\nBALD EAGLE AREA \u2013 Hoover 5 0-0 10; Weaver 1 2-2 3; Simpson 0 0-0 0; Mann 1 0-0 2; Reese 1 0-0 2; Masters 2 1-1 5; Doran 3 2-4 8; Giedroc 0 1-2 1. TOTALS: 14 6-9 34.
\n3-POINT GOALS \u2013 Tyrone 2 (Corle, Garbinsky)
\nTYRONE 8 11 14 16 \u2013 49
\nBALD EAGLE AREA 10 9 7 8 \u2013 34<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades was sure his team\u2019s lack of speed and size would force him to be a zone coach in his first year with the Lady Eagles. But a string of poor play before the Christmas break forced Rhoades to reconsider his approach. The Lady Eagles went exclusively to man-to-man defense starting with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}