The reconstruction of the Tyrone girls basketball team began Saturday at the Williamsburg Tipoff Tournament.
\nAnd while the 61-41 loss to Central wasn\u2019t the way first-year coach Luke Rhoades ideally envisioned the season starting, it wasn\u2019t quite the 20-point whipping it looked like on paper, either.
\nIn fact, if Rhoades\u2019 plan is to remold the Lady Eagles\u2019 program practice-by-practice and quarter-by-quarter, the season-opening loss was a good start.
\n\u201cIn the first quarter, we played like a good, experienced team,\u201d Rhoades said. \u201cIn the second half, their varsity game experience got to us.\u201d
\nTyrone led the Lady Dragons, which returned three starters and six letter-winners, 10-8 after the first quarter. It was a period that saw the Lady Eagles control the tempo and handle the Lady Dragons\u2019 pressure with relative ease.
\nEven after the Lady Dragons started to heat up from the floor in the second quarter \u2013 and with Tyrone struggling with its own shooting \u2013 the Lady Eagles trailed at halftime by only six, 31-25.
\nBut the second half was a different story, and Rhoades saw a direct correlation between Central\u2019s experience, his squad\u2019s inexperience, and the 30-16 edge the Lady Dragons carried over the last two quarters.
\nThere was also the matter of a Lady Dragon team that spent most of the second half filling up the nets. Three Lady Dragons scored in double figures, led by Jena Isenberg\u2019s 20 points and four three-pointers.
\nAlicia Nevins added 12 points while Stefanie Hinton scored 11.
\n\u201cThey shot the ball very well,\u201d said Rhoades.
\nBut there were positives for Tyrone, which started a season without former coach Jim Swaney on the bench for the first time since 1987. Senior Liz Tepsic picked up where she left off in her junior season, scoring 10 points, while classmate Megan Turiano led the Lady Eagles with 11 points.
\nJunior Brooke Garbinsky, in her first varsity start at point guard, was a major factor in Tyrone\u2019s ease in dealing with Central\u2019s pressure. And Tyrone\u2019s reserves, most of whom are first-year freshmen and sophomores or inexperienced juniors, played up to expectations.
\n\u201cEveryone contributed a little,\u201d Rhoades said. \u201cI was very pleased with how Brooke handled the point guard position, and our reserves played with confidence, even though it was their first varsity action.\u201d
\nRhoades\u2019 biggest concerns were his team\u2019s inability to convert on its opportunities against pressure and its troubles on the glass. The Lady Eagles surrendered nine offensive rebounds in the first half alone.
\n\u201cWe could have opened up a double-digit lead if we had attacked off pressure and made lay-ups,\u201d said Rhoades.
\nThe Lady Eagles are now looking at a stretch of three games this week that Rhoades is viewing as close to must-wins. It starts with the MAC opener tomorrow in Bellefonte, followed by a non-conference game in Tyrone against Juniata Valley Thursday. Next Saturday, the Lady Eagles return to Williamsburg to face United in the tournament consolation game.
\n\u201cThose are three important games because we have a stretch before Christmas against three very tough teams (Hollidaysburg, Lewistown and Bishop Guilfoyle),\u201d he said.
\nGAME NOTES: Tyrone made four three-pointers \u2026 Rhoades said he was pleased with the performance of sophomore reserve Teanna Kobuck, whom he credited for her hustle \u2026 Williamsburg also advanced to the title game by beating United 53-45.
\nCENTRAL 61 TYRONE 41
\nCENTRAL 8 23 20 10 \u2013 61
\nTYRONE 10 15 6 10 \u2013 41
\nCENTRAL \u2013 Nevins 5 1-2 12; Isenberg 8 0-0 20; Piper 1 0-0 2; Hinton 3 4-6 11; Laratonda 3 2-2 8; G. Lazendorfer 0 2-2 2; Steward 1 1-5 3; Leighty 0 0-0 0; K. Lazendorfer 0 0-0 0; A. Lazendorfer 0 0-0 0; O. Lazendorfer 1 1-3 3; Dodson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22 11-20 61.
\nTYRONE \u2013 Tepsic 2 6-10 10; Turiano 4 2-2 11; Christine 2 0-1 6; Corle 1 2-2 5; Faretta 1 0-0 2; Garbinsky 1 1-4 3; Kobuck 1 0-0 2; Emigh 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 13 11-21 41.
\nThree-point goals: Central – 6 (Isenberg 4, Nevins, Hinton).
\nTyrone – 4 (Christine 2, Turiano, Corle).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The reconstruction of the Tyrone girls basketball team began Saturday at the Williamsburg Tipoff Tournament. And while the 61-41 loss to Central wasn\u2019t the way first-year coach Luke Rhoades ideally envisioned the season starting, it wasn\u2019t quite the 20-point whipping it looked like on paper, either. In fact, if Rhoades\u2019 plan is to remold the […]<\/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-39965","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\/39965","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=39965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}