The Mountain Athletic Conference doesn’t hand out an award for Rookie of the Year, but if it did, Bellefonte sophomore Missy Clouser would have put her name at the top of the list of candidates with her performance last night against Tyrone.
The 5-10 post punished the Lady Eagles in the paint, smothering offensive rebounds and scoring on slick moves with her back to the basket, on her way to a game-high 20 points in Bellefonte’s 45-37 victory at the Bellefonte Area High School gymnasium.
It was the first loss of the season for the Lady Eagles, who finished a stretch of three games in five days with back-to-back games on Monday and Tuesday. Now 2-1 (0-1, MAC Division II), they’ll take a week off before hosting Lewistown next Tuesday.
Bellefonte improved to 3-0 and 1-0, and despite an experienced backcourt of seniors Ellen Kolos and Kristin Irwin seemed content to allow their big soph to handle the scoring load.
“She was definitely stronger than we were on the inside,” said Tyrone coach Jim Swaney. “We just couldn’t keep her off the offensive glass, or stop the lob they were throwing into the post. We have to do at least one of those two things.”
A night earlier, against an equally imposing backcourt from Juniata Valley, Tyrone’s posts were more often than not in perfect position in fronting their defensive assignments, while help from the weakside was always on time when a lob made it into the post. That wasn’t the case early against the Lady Raiders, who with a 5-4 lead midway through the first quarter went to Clouser inside.
Clouser scored first on a lob feed and was fouled. She converted the free throw to make it 8-4, and scored in similar fashion 30 seconds later to put Bellefonte up by six. Emily McKenna hit a three-pointer with 47 seconds left to make it 10-7, but it was a slim lead Bellefonte would settle for after turning the ball over seven times in the opening frame.
The Lady Raiders threatened to break things open in the second quarter, going up 16-10 on a Clouser lay-up with under three minutes to play, but Tyrone senior Hilary McNelis came in to inject life into Tyrone’s offense, scoring four of the Lady Eagles’ last six points to help pull her team even at halftime, 16-16.
Bellefonte’s size – along with Tyrone’s tired legs – began to show in the third quarter, when the Lady Raiders took a commanding eight-point lead. Bellefonte scored three times on offensive put-backs – two from Clouser – and led 28-20 at the 3:29 mark. McKenna and McNelis combined for five points over the last 2:38 to allow the Lady Eagles to shave the lead back to five, 30-25, heading into the fourth quarter.
There, Clouser scored seven more, but Bellefonte’s experienced guards took command as well, with Kolos and Irwin combining for eight points. The Lady Eagles cut the lead to four, 40-36, on an acrobatic lay-up by Emily Lloyd at 1:48, but despite switching between full and half-court pressure in the last 1:30, they would come no closer.
“I don’t know if it’s because we played two games in a row, but we looked a step slow all night,” Swaney said. “We weren’t penetrating gaps against their zone and we weren’t reversing the ball, and when we did, our jumpers were coming up short.
“You don’t want to read too much into a win or a loss, but good teams learn from things like this.”
McNelis led Tyrone for the second time in three games with 13 points to go along with five rebounds. McKenna scored 11.
HOOP NOTES: McKenna and McNelis have scored in double figures in all three games this season … Bellefonte turned the ball over 19 times … Bellefonte hosts Penns Valley Thursday.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Tyrone jayvees suffered their first defeat of the season, as well, losing to the Lady Raiders 41-40.
Tyrone led by as many as six in the fourth quarter, but wasunable to hang onto the lead.
Stefani Bryan led the Lady Eagles with 12 points, while Liz Tepsic added 10. Kayla Corle chipped in seven points to go along with a team-high 10 rebounds.
VARSITY
Bellefonte 45 Tyrone 37
TYRONE – McKenna 4 1-2 11; Ingle 0 0-2 0; Lloyd 2 0-0 4; Roth 1 1-2 3; Hoover 2 0-1 4; McNelis 5 3-4 13; Bradford 0 0-0 0; Long 0 0-0 0; Bryan 0 0-0 0; Tepsic 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 15 5-11 37
BELLEFONTE – Irwin 3 4-6 10; Kolos 2 3-4 7; McWilliams 0 0-0 0; Lucas 2 0-0 4; C. Proper 1 0-0 2; A. Proper 1 0-0 2; Clouser 9 2-6 20. TOTALS: 18 9-16 45
Score by Quarters
TYRONE 7 9 9 12 – 37
BELLEFONTE 10 6 14 15 – 45
Three point goals: Tyrone 2 (McKenna 2)
JUNIOR VARSITY
Bellefonte 41 Tyrone 40
TYRONE – Bryan 5 0-1 12; Tepsic 4 2-2 10; Walker 0 0-0 0; Russell 0 0-0 0; Turiano 3 0-0 7; Corle 1 4-5 7; Glace 0 0-0 0; Garbinsky 1 2-3 4; Christine 0 0-0 0; Bartlebaugh 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 8-11 40
BELLEFONTE – Benner 1 0-0 2; Stewart 5 1-4 13; Port 4 1-1 9; Fromm 3 2-3 8; Story 1 3-4 5; Waite 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 16 7-12 41
Score by Quarters
TYRONE 8 12 8 12 – 40
BELLEFONTE 8 11 8 14 – 41
Three point goals: Tyrone 4 (Bryan 2, Corle 1, Turiano 1)
Bellefonte 2 (Stewart 2)
