It would be unfair to characterize the Tyrone Lady Eagles’ 71-43 drubbing at the hands of Lewistown last night in Mifflin County as dramatic reversal of everything that had gone so right over the team’s previous six games, when it won five, played well, and generally turned around a season that before Christmas looked for certain like it would be ending the second week of February.
Instead, it’s much easier to say that the Lady Eagles ran into a team that is every bit as good as its unblemished record would indicate – a team that can genuinely afford to turn it on and off as it chooses and still come out smelling like roses.
That’s what the 17-0 Lady Panthers did last night, doing just enough to maintain the lead in the first half before blowing the game open with relentless offensive bursts in the third and fourth quarters that demonstrated Lewistown’s depth and balance.
Lewistown began the second half making 7 of its first 10 shots from the floor to extend a 23-16 halftime lead to 40-29 by the 2:02 mark of the third quarter. The lead grew to 48-33 by period’s end.
The Lady Panthers then started the fourth quarter by connecting on their first six shot attempts, on their way to a 71 percent performance in the period.
For the Lady Eagles, who score just over 47 points per game, it was all they could do to keep their head above water, particularly with top scorer Emily McKenna struggling through a rare off-night shooting. For the second time this season, the Lady Panthers played a box-and-1 on McKenna in the second half. She finished with only three field goals and 7 points.
Junior Liz Tepsic led the Lady Eagles with 15 points and a career-high 19 rebounds, 12 of which came in the first half. Emily Lloyd added 11.
However, as a team the Lady Eagles managed to connect on only 13 of their 48 shots (27 percent), including a stretch in the first quarter when they missed their first 12. With numbers like those, it’s difficult to believe Tyrone was in the game early, but after the first period the Lady Eagles were behind 11-6.
They cut the lead to 15-14 midway through the second quarter on basket by Emily Ingle, but Lewistown closed the half on an 8-4 run, with four different players contributing points, including freshman Hannah Geedey, who drilled a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in the second quarter to make it 23-16.
Geedey finished with 14 points, seven of which came in the third quarter, when seven Lady Panthers cracked the scoring column. Senior Jenna Craig also scored seven, on her way to a team-high 15.
The loss dropped the Lady Eagles to 9-8 overall and 4-6 in Section II of the Mountain Athletic Conference, and things won’t get any easier with games against Quad-A Hollidaysburg and MAC rival Bellefonte ahead next week.
Lewistown maintained a two-game lead in the MAC, improving to 9-0.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Kayla Corle scored 13 points to lead the Tyrone jayvees, but the Lady Eagles were outscored 25-6 in the third quarter after trailing by 10 at halftime, on their way to a 56-30 loss.
VARSITY
Lewistown 71 Tyrone 43
TYRONE – McKenna 3 0-0 7; Lloyd 2 7-8 11; Ingle 3 0-0 6; Hoover 0 0-0 0; Tepsic 4 7-9 15; Bryan 1 0-0 2; Bradford 0 2-2 2; Walker 0 0-0 0; Long 0 0-0 0; Turiano 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 16-19
LEWISTOWN – Geedey 5 2-2 14; Craig 7 1-4 15; Wilson 2 0-0 5; Krepps 0 1-2 1; Espigh 5 1-3 11; Rhoades 1 5-8 7; Zimmerman 0 4-4 4; Pecht 1 0-0 2; Bobb 6 0-0 12. TOTALS: 27 14-23 71
3-POINT GOALS: Tyrone 1 (McKenna), Lewistown 3 (Geedey 2, Wilson)
Score by Quarters
TYRONE 6 10 17 10 – 43
LEWISTOWN 11 12 25 23 – 71
JUNIOR VARSITY
Lewistown 56 Tyrone 30
TYRONE – Christine 0 2-2 2; Turiano 2 3-4 7; Corle 4 3-4 13; Garbinsky 3 0-0 6; Long 1 0-0 2; Bryan 0 0-0 0; Halter 0 0-0 0; Cox 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9 8-10 30.
LEWISTOWN – Drake 1 0-0 2; King 0 2-4 2; Wilson 10 1-4 23; Wray 2 2-2 6; Zimmerman 4 2-2 11; Pecht 4 0-0 8; Fedock 1 2-2 4. TOTALS: 22 9-14 56.
Score by Quarters
TYRONE 9 7 6 8 – 30
LEWISTOWN 15 11 25 5 – 56
3-POINT GOALS: Tyrone 2 (Corle 2), Lewistown 3 (Wilson 2, Zimmerman)
