Tyrone came into Hollidaysburg looking to avenge two straight losses earlier this week. With a couple of snow showers and a day off from practice, the Golden Eagles looked to snap their skid in the first round match-up against Kiski Area Cavaliers.
Tyrone started off the game similar to the BG game on Tuesday night, as they were sluggish and let the opponent get on top early. Only 16 points were scored between the two teams in the first quarter. Tyrone had just six points split between Josh Clark, Adam Corle and Byron Kost who led Tyrone with three going into the second quarter. Both teams were having a lot of trouble getting their offense’s going as they missed short “peeps” and forced several three point attempts to try and break out a large run. Neither team was successful until the second quarter.
After a 9-0 run by the Cavaliers that continued over from the first quarter, Tyrone called a quick timeout with 7:09 to break up the early run that put Kiski up 15-6. After a quick lay-up from Chase Mangus, Tyrone started to make a run.
Kiski Area may not of heard about Byron Kost, but he decided to light up the Cavaliers for three of his four “triples” in the second quarter. This brought the Eagles within three points before allowing a backdoor lay-up from Brad Lookabaugh to end Tyrone’s 8-0 run with 4:00 to go.
With the score at 21-14, Tyrone needed another strong effort to change up the momentum that was waving high in Kiski’s favor. With a put-back from Doug Morrow and a steal from Josh Clark, Byron Kost found himself open once again to drain his fourth “trey” of the half and cut the lead to just two points (21-19) with 3:13 left in the half.
Kiski would not let up, however, as they held Tyrone to just two points in the remaining three minutes of the game and took a “sneaky” 7-2 run to finish the first half with the score, 28-21.
It was a sloppy first half for Tyrone as they turned the ball over eight times and had a really hard time setting up their offense as they missed open shots and opportunities to score easy lay-ups on fast breaks. These two schools were very evenly matched up, and it was Kiski who was playing smarter and better basketball, which put them ahead in the first half.
“I thought we had a really good chance of beating this team in the tournament,” Tyrone coach Mike Harris said. “We made too many early mistakes and didn’t take chance of our opportunities in the game that kept us from winning. We just couldn’t get it done.”
The third quarter wasn’t any different from the first two as Tyrone began turning the ball over on fast breaks and did not convert their open shots. Luckily, Kiski was having an even harder time trying to find their offense as they began to turn the ball over as well.
As the third quarter wore down, Tyrone trailed the Cavaliers, 42-31 with just under 30 seconds left. After a Kiski shot attempt failed, Tyrone flew up the court with ten seconds left, trying to look for a shot. After a couple of passes, the ball ended up in Steve Catich’s hands as he was left wide open to nail his only three of the game. This gave Tyrone a little momentum that they needed for the final quarter, trailing 42-34.
The fourth quarter was a big one for Tyrone as they put all of their excuses and flaws behind them to break that solid nine-point lead that Kiski grasped firmly. Kiski began the “stall ball” offense to start the fourth quarter, with no attempt to shoot the ball. This type of offense was used in the early 1930’s when there was no shot clock in the NBA and teams would hold on to the ball as long as they could until they found an easy shot. It was really frustrating to watch and Tyrone began to run frantically for the first minute of the quarter until Mangus busted open behind Morrow for the first points of the quarter.
The offense seemed to work out well, putting them up 44-34 with a minute already taken off of the game clock. After two failed free-throw attempts by Tyler Hoover, Kiski began to run their “old-fashioned” offense, passing the ball to each other outside of the perimeter. It was working again, until a “bad” pass went straight into the stands and gave Tyrone a chance to start a run.
It was Catich who started his own fire for five straight points to cut the ten-point Cavalier lead to five (44-39) with 5:09 to go in the game. It was the run that forced Kiski to call a timeout with 4:10 left in the game. The momentum was in the upper hand of Tyrone as they looked to continue damaging the lead of the Cavaliers in the end of the game.
After the timeout, Brad Lookabaugh scored quickly on a sneaky back door cut that put the lead for Kiski back to seven (46-39) with just under 3:40 to play. With time and the score against Tyrone, it was time to make another run, and they did just that.
Leonard Wilson jumped into the action, scoring on a lay-up to cut the lead to five with 3:30 to go. Tyrone began to realize that the game was still up for grabs as Kiski’s stall ball began to wear down as they threw the ball out of bounds again for their ninth turnover of the half.
As Tyrone set up their spread offense, Catich took control of his opponent, Matt Shirley, as he quickly delivered a jab inside and reversed baseline to sweep past his defender for a beautiful finish. The only thing that was bad about that play was that he didn’t dunk it. Other than that, it was the highlight of the fourth quarter spurt from Tyrone.
The score was 46-43 with 2:52 to go and Tyrone was looking to cut the lead down even more, but Lookabaugh hit a mid-range jumper from just inside the top of the key to put the Cavaliers back up five. On the ensuing possession, Josh Clark drove passed two defenders to put up a well-contested lay-up that cut the lead to three again, 48-45.
This was the last time Tyrone would score as Kiski ran out the last nine points on their way to win the first round of the Roundball Classic in Hollidaysburg.
“It wasn’t the fact that we turned the ball over, it was when we turned the ball over,” Harris explained. “We pushed the ball up the floor and tried to make twenty-foot passes which you can’t do against good athletes. Kiski had good athletes and we can’t risk long passes against good athletes, otherwise we will not get the job done in the future.”
Tyrone falls to 1-3 and plays the tomorrow against the loser of Hollidaysburg/Bishop McDevitt in the run for the fifth place spot. Byron Kost led Tyrone in scoring with 12 points as he hit four three’s and shooting 57% from behind the arc.
Kiski’s Eric Godola led the way with 17 points as they will take on the winner of the Hollidaysburg/Bishop McDevitt game Saturday night.
Kiski Area 57 Tyrone 45
Tyrone – Kost 4 0-0 12, Catich 3 1-2 10, Wilson 2 4-6 8, Clark 3 0-0 6, Corle 2 1-2 5, Morrow 2 0-0 4. Totals 17 6-12 45
Kiski – Gadola 6 3-4 17, Skinner 5 1-2 11, Lookabaugh 4 0-0 8, Mangus 3 0-0 6, Milisits 2 1-2 5, Pacific 1 1-2 3, Matviko 1 1-2 3, Shirley 1 0-0 2, Yarussi 1 0-0 2. Totals 24 7-12 57
Score by Quarters
Kiski 10 18 14 15 – 57
Tyrone 6 15 13 11 – 45
Three-point goals: Tyrone-5 (Kost-4, Catich).
Kiski-2 (Gadola-2).
