Outscored 10-0 in the final two minutes at Bishop Guilfoyle’s Pleasant Valley gymnasium on Thursday night, the Tyrone Golden Eagles fell to the BG Marauders 53-44.
Steve Catich sunk a pair of shots from the charity stripe with 2:18 remaining to lift Trone to a 44-43 lead, but that was the last score for the visitors, while Bishop Guilfoyle (4-0) added 10 more points for their fourth straight victory of the early season.
Bishop Guilfoyle had leads of 10-8 at the end of the opening quarter and 23-20 at the half, but the Golden Eagles were definitely in the ballgame, despite numerous turovers.
“We finally put together a full, complete game,” explained Tyrone first-year coach George Gripp. “But we had too many turnovers. In the first half, we had 12 or 13. we were in the game, but should have had the lead.”
Tyrone actually took the lead at the end of three full quarters 36-34, after outscoring BG 16-11, behind Matt Brooks, who led the Eagles with 11 points and Catich who scored nine points.
“Matt’s confidence is growing with each game,” commented Gripp about Brooks, a 6-foot junior. “Hopefully that will pay off as the season moves along.”
Bishop Guilfoyle challenged every pass and every shot in a pivotal fourth quarter however, holding the Golden Eagles to just eight points, while putting 19 of their own on the scoreboard.
‘The kids put it all on the floor. The effort was definitely there,” Gripp said. “We’ll build from this. That’s the kind of effort we need every time out. If we are able to compete like this in every game, we will beat a lot of teams down the road.”
Playing for another first-year coach, Josh Baker, Matt Baronner scored a game-high 16 points for Bishop Guilfoyle, including 14 in the second half. Kevin Floyd added 14 points and had eight rebounds and four assists, and Jon Kirsch had 10 points coming off the bench for the Marauders.
Bishop Guilfoyle 53 Tyrone 44
Tyrone – Gehret 1 1-2 3, Updyke 3 0-0 6, Catich 3 3-4 9, Brooks 5 1-2 11, Morrow 2 1-1 5, Franco 2 1-4 5, Branstetter 0 1-2 1, Dane 1 2-4 4. TOTALS 17 10-19 44.
Bishop Guilfoyle – Wardrop 0 0-0 0, Baronner 5 6-7 16, McConnell 0 2-3 2, Milliron 3 0-2 6, Floyd 5 4-4 14, Kirsch 4 2-2 10, Brown 0 0-0 0, Fraundorfer 1 1-1 3, McDannell 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 19 15-19 53.
Tyrone 8 12 16 8 – 44
Bishop Guilfoyle 10 13 11 19 – 53
Three-point goals: None.
