After Saturday’s 54-45 victory against United in the consolation game of the Williamsburg Tipoff Tournament, the Tyrone Lady Eagles had put together back-to-back games in which they led by double-figures by halftime.
Now the trick becomes playing the last eight minutes as well as the first eight.
Tyrone led the Lady Lions 22-11 at intermission, forcing United into 12 first half turnovers and 16 percent shooting from the floor.
But the second half –the fourth quarter in particular – was a different story. Rather than taking the ball away, Tyrone at times looked more than willing to give it away. At the same time, the Lady Eagles’ shot selection was suspect, with shots coming much too early in the offense to please coach Luke Rhoades.
But their saving grace was their ability to withstand United’s full-court pressure late and to hit critical foul shots down the stretch. So while the Lady Lions were able to trim the lead to three points twice in the fourth quarter, they were never in a position to take the lead.
“The positive thing from this game is that we did shoot very well from the foul line at the end of the game, which I was very happy about,” Rhoades said.
The Lady Eagles hit 14 of 16 foul shots over the last 4:38 of the game. Freshman Rachael Emigh was 4-for-6, while junior Kayla Corle went 4-for-4.
Every one of them was necessary, considering the kind of role United was on. Through three quarters, the Lady Lions had made just 6 of 38 shots, but in the final period they hit 7 of 14, including three in a row with under three minutes to play, pulling within a three-pointer of tying the game when Jessica Bloom scored inside at the 1:33 mark to make it 44-41.
But Tyrone was 6-for-6 from the stripe after that, and Emigh and Meg Turiano each scored on run out layups off of United pressure.
“I could tell when we came in the gym today for shoot-around that our intensity level wasn’t there,” said Rhoades. “It seems like we only have three girls on the court at a time that are performing at the level we need to perform at. If we keep that up, we’re going to struggle against the better teams.”
The game was similar to Tyrone’s first victory of the season against Juniata Valley on Thursday, a game the Lady Eagles led by 20 in the fourth quarter before the Lady Hornets cut it to seven late.
Then, too, Tyrone was looking for quick shots early in the offense rather than running it through and working the clock.
“We’ve got to get comfortable running the offense, and we also have to get comfortable just holding the ball,” Rhoades said. “We talked about that on the way down here today, and that it was similar to what we did against Juniata Valley.”
Tyrone led 11-3 after the first quarter, and held the Lady Lions without a basket until the 3:35 mark of the second. Liz Tepsic scored the Lady Eagles’ first five points of the second quarter as they built an 11-point lead at halftime.
An 8-3 run at the end of the third quarter made it 36-21 before United started to chip away at the lead.
Liz Tepsic led Tyrone with 13 points, while Corle, Emigh and Brooke Garbinsky each added eight.
Bloom was the game’s top scorer with 15, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter.
The Lady Eagles travel to Lewistown tonight to take on the Lady Panthers.
Rhoades said his team has focused on taking a new attitude this season against Lewistown, which has not lost to Tyrone for 12 straight seasons dating back to 1994.
“We want to break the streak this year. That’s been our mindset and it’s a goal of ours,” said Rhoades. “So hopefully Monday we can play a complete game with the kind of defense we need to win.”
TYRONE 54 UNITED 45
UNITED 3 8 10 24 – 45
TYRONE 11 11 14 18 – 54
UNITED – Ginnis 0 0-0 0; Montgomery 2 2-3 6; Oliver 1 0-0 2; Merle 2 0-1 4; Fuller 2 2-2 6; Bloom 6 3-4 15; Warfel 0 0-0 0; Jones 0 4-6 4; Perry 3 1-2 6. TOTALS: 16 12-18 45.
TYRONE – Tepsic 5 3-4 13; Christine 1 3-4 5; Corle 1 6-8 10; Turiano 2 0-0 4; Garbinsky 2 4-4 8; Faretta 2 2-2 6; Emigh 2 4-6 8; Kobuck 0 0-0 0; Harden 0 0-0 0; Waite 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 22-30 54.
THREE-POINT GOALS: Tyrone 2 (Garbinsky 2); United 1 (Perry)
