There were times when a bad night was good enough for the Tyrone Lady Eagles against Bald Eagle Area, when a sub-par effort could have yielded a 15-point win, especially at home.
Those days are over now for the Lady Eagles, who in terms of experience and athleticism have been out-manned by even the MAC’s average teams in head coach Luke Rhoades’ first season.
That was never more apparent than last night at home against BEA, which won 43-33 in a game it didn’t win as much as Tyrone lost. The Lady Eagles turned the ball over 17 times – 11 in the second half – shot 18.7 percent and missed their first 12 shots of the fourth quarter.
BEA, which shot 33 percent and coughed the ball up 21 times, really won going away, extending its fourth quarter lead to the point where Tyrone was forced to foul over the last minute-and-a-half.
“This is probably the most disappointing loss of the year,” said Rhoades. “We played horrendous. I told the girls Bald Eagle would want to beat us on our home floor, and we really let them do it. We played awful.”
To make matters worse, it was Senior Night, a game the Lady Eagles would have liked to win for Liz Tepsic and Meg Turiano, the team’s only seniors. Instead, it was loss 15 out of 22, one that completely closed the door on any playoff aspirations Tyrone had.
“Our youth and inexperience came back tonight and there’s no excuse for that,” said Rhoades. “There’s no reason for us to play that timid.”
Tyrone led 19-18 at halftime, but fell behind 22-20 two minutes into the third quarter on a putback by BEA sophomore Danielle Reese, who scored a game-high 13 points. BEA would never relinquish the lead, and Tyrone never came close to threatening it. The Lady Eagles shot just 2-for-15 in the third and 2-for-21 in the fourth.
Meanwhile, Bald Eagle opened the fourth on an 8-0 run that put Tyrone in long-three and foul mode. In response, BEA went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final minute of play.
Kayla Corle came off the bench to lead Tyrone with 12 points, followed by Tepsic, who scored nine. Eight of Corle’s points came in the first half, when the Lady Eagles built their one-point lead.
It was a lead that wasn’t built to last as Tyrone made just 4 of 36 shots in the second half.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Tyrone’s jayvees lost to BEA 40-16, despite six points from Paris Harden and five from Teanna Kobuck.
BALD EAGLE AREA 43 TYRONE 33
BALD EAGLE AREA – Weaver 2 3-4 8; Hoover 0 1-2 1; Kristofik 0 0-0 0; Mann 1 0-4 2; Reese 5 3-4 13; Masters 2 3-6 7; Doran 3 0-1 6; Giedroc 2 2-4 6. TOTALS: 15 12-25 43.
TYRONE – Tepsic 4 1-2 9; Turiano 1 0-0 2; Corle 5 1-3 12; Faretta 0 0-0 0; Garbinsky 1 2-2 4; Emigh 0 2-3 2; Harden 1 0-0 2; Christine 0 2-6 2. TOTALS: 12 8-16 33.
BALD EAGLE AREA 9 9 9 16 – 43
TYRONE 11 8 6 8 – 33
THREE-POINT GOALS: Tyrone 1 (Corle)
