There were a lot of factors that made Tyrone’s 67-40 win over Bald Eagle Area last night different than the Lady Eagles’ one-point loss a month ago in Wingate.
A big part of it was improved shooting, especially early. Where Tyrone made only 1 of 11 shots in the first quarter in its game at BEA, last night Tyrone finished the first quarter 7-for-14 with a 22-10 lead, aided in no small part by Emily McKenna’s four three pointers.
Tyrone’s scoring balance helped, as well. With McKenna leading the way with a season-high 23 points, three Lady Eagles reached double figures. In January, only Hilary McNelis, with 26, had double digits, while five players with significant minutes went scoreless.
But the biggest difference can’t be totaled on a calculator or read from a stat sheet. Simply put, the Lady Eagles are no longer the same team.
“I like our team right now,” said Tyrone coach Jim Swaney. “I think we have a really good chance to close this thing out strong, get back up to .500 and enter the playoffs and see what happens. I think we’re peaking at the right time, and the kids are starting to believe that they can be pretty good.”
The win – which came on a Senior Night that saw lone senior McNelis recognized for her four varsity seasons – was Tyrone’s third straight, and it moved Tyrone to 10-12 (5-8 Mountain Athletic Conference) with games remaining against Philipsburg-Osceola and Williamsburg. It marked the first three-game winning streak for the Lady Eagles in two seasons.
The once offensively-challenged Lady Eagles recorded a new season-high point total and scored more than 60 for the second time in the last three games, with another game ending at 59.
McNelis and Marissa Hoover scored 12 apiece to complement McKenna’s night, while Tiffany Bradford added eight points.
The key sequence in the game came midway through the second quarter, just as BEA began to nudge its way back from a double-digit deficit. Carina Struble scored on an offensive put-back to cut the lead to 28-20, and Megan Garner made a jumper 20 seconds later to make it 28-22.
It was a point in the game when the Lady Eagles would have been apt to grow gun-shy earlier this season – a time when an aggressive team like Bald Eagle often found it easiest push its way back on sheer force of will.
That didn’t happen last night. On Tyrone’s next possession, McNelis scored on a rebound. Thirty seconds later, she scored from the baseline on a turnaround jumper and got fouled; her free throw made it 33-22.
Hoover made a lay-up in traffic with 40 seconds to play, McKenna scored on a hard drive right before the halftime buzzer, and after allowing a 12-point lead to be trimmed in half, Tyrone had gone on a 9-2 run to lead 37-24 heading into the break.
Swaney said his team’s strong offensive performance in the first half was the result of how it responded to BEA’s varied defensive looks.
“Against their zone, McKenna got us off on the right foot with some threes, and then when they went man in the second quarter, Hilary got open inside and we started running our offense pretty well,” Swaney said.
The Lady Eagles ended it quickly in the second half, aided in part by Bald Eagle’s struggles from the floor. Tyrone started the third quarter on a 17-5 run that began with McKenna’s fifth three-pointer and ended with Stefani Bryan’s first. During that six-minute span, Bald Eagle made just one field goal on its way to a 2-for-10 output in the frame.
Bald Eagle (6-15, 5-8) went 0 for 8 from the field in the fourth quarter and ended the game 11 for 49 (22.4 percent).
Tyrone, meanwhile, was 22 for 47 through the first three quarters and finished 26 for 63 (41.2 percent).
HOOP NOTES: Tyrone is averaging 63.3 points per game over its last three games … Swaney was recognized along with McNelis for his 250th career win, a milestone he achieved last Friday when Tyrone defeated Indian Valley … McNelis’ total left her at 362 points for the season. She needs 38 to become only the third player in Lady Eagle history to register two seasons of 400 or more points … of his lone senior, who missed 12 games her sophomore season after suffering a stress fracture in her foot, Swaney said: “If she doesn’t have the unfortunate injury … she’s a kid that would probably have 1,000 points right now … but she’s not only been a consistent scorer. She’s emerged as our leading rebounder, and she plays hard on the defensive end. She comes to play, and she wants to win. She’s been a plus for our program and for the school. She’s not only done the work athletically, but she’s done the work in the classroom, too. She’s been a real pleasure to coach.” … McNelis will play softball at St. Francis next year.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Despite holding a 9-2 in the fourth quarter, Tyrone lost to BEA 21-16 in the jayvee game.
