Indian Valley coach Roger Herto could see it coming as early as the first quarter, based solely on his team’s body language. But in the last five minutes of the game, it was something in Tyrone’s non-verbal cues that let him know this game against the Lady Eagles was drastically different from the one that played out in Highland Park in December.
He could see it in their eyes.
“You could just see that down the stretch they wanted to put the hammer down, and they did,” said Herto.
Tyrone made 5 of its 6 fourth quarter shot attempts, hit eight straight foul shots in the final five minutes, and outscored Valley 16-7 down the stretch to defeat the Lady Warriors 64-53 last night at the Tyrone Area High School gymnasium.
It was Tyrone coach Jim Swaney’s 250th career victory as a head coach, with all of his wins coming while directing the Lady Eagles.
“To me, that says we’ve had a lot of good kids who have contributed to our success,” Swaney said. “Hopefully this group can be the same way. Maybe this win can catapult us on.”
In fact, Swaney has been looking for a corner-turning victory with this team for weeks, noting often that the Lady Eagles were pretty close to where he would like them to be, despite their sub-.500 record. With last night’s win, Tyrone improved to 8-12 (3-8 Mountain Athletic Conference), snapping a three-game losing streak.
Tyrone’s 64-point total was two points off of its season-high, and it was spearheaded the tandem of Hilary McNelis and Emily McKenna, who combined for 43 points. McNelis scored 18 in the first half as Tyrone built a 32-29 lead, and finished with a game-high 24 to go along with 12 rebounds. McKenna scored 19 and dished out seven assists, with eight points coming in the fourth quarter.
But the key for Tyrone was where it got the 21 remaining points. In the Lady Eagles’ 41-37 loss to the Lady Warriors last month, there were 11 points scored beyond the McNelis-McKenna output. Last night, six of the players Swaney inserted into the lineup scored, with junior post Marissa Hoover in particular coming through with another productive game, adding seven points and eight boards.
“For Hoover to have eight rebounds and seven points – that’s a pretty nice effort out of your second slot in the post,” Swaney said.
But for everything the Lady Eagles did better than they did in their first meeting with Valley, IV coach Roger Herto saw his team doing something worse, and the apparent regression left the 13-year coach soul searching in the wake of the Lady Warriors’ third loss in the last five games.
“We’ve done a lot of things that were uncharacteristic for us,” he said. “I just told our girls that we need to think long and hard about whether or not we even want to enter the (District 6-AAA) tournament. We came out extremely flat, and I could just feel from the start of the game – the first thought I had was ‘Here we go again.’ For some reason, I haven’t been able to reach these kids.”
Playing without 5-11 senior Megan Schulze, Valley (10-9, 6-5) missed its first 11 shots of the game and finished shooting just 29 percent from the field, while turning the ball over 19 times.
The Lady Warriors’ poor shooting early allowed Tyrone to build an 11-3 lead midway through the first quarter on a basket by McNelis. But Valley made three of its last five, with Allison Mitchell scoring five to pull IV within 14-12 at the end of the period.
By the middle of the second quarter, Valley had settled into an offensive rhythm and took its biggest lead of the game (27-23) at the 3:03 mark on one of Mitchell’s four three-pointers. But McKenna and McNelis regained control for the Lady Eagles over the last two-and-a-half minutes of the half, combining to score Tyrone’s last nine points, including a conventional three-point play by McNelis with 44 seconds left to lift her team to a three-point lead at the break.
The Lady Eagles got the lead up to 10 (42-32) with 2:32 left in the third quarter on one of two strong drives to the basket in the period by McKenna before Valley cut it back to three with a 7-0 spurt led by senior Megan Tewksbury, who scored a team-high 15.
In the fourth, Hoover scored five of Tyrone’s first six points as the Lady Eagles clung to a four-point lead with 5:04 left (50-46). That’s when McKenna and McNelis took over, scoring 12 of Tyrone’s last 14 points. McNelis scored twice inside over the last 3:40, as did McKenna, who physically dominated her defender in the post when the Lady Eagles went to their motion offense.
“When we knew Schulze wasn’t playing, we told McNelis she should dominate the inside,” said Swaney. “They really didn’t have anybody to contain her.
“What I’m pleased about with McKenna is you can see with her maturity that if she misses outside shots, she doesn’t just stay outside. She’s starting to find ways to get it done, whether that be to post someone up, to drive to the basket, or to get to the foul line.”
The win kept alive Tyrone’s hopes of avoiding a second straight losing season, after finishing 2003-2004 4-20, an all-time low for the program under Swaney. The Lady Eagles now have four games remaining against teams with a combined 21-50 record.
HOOP NOTES: Mitchell scored 12 for Valley, all on three-pointers … the Lady Eagles scored 60 points for the third time this season and the first time since January 4 versus Huntingdon … Tyrone turned the ball over seven times in the fourth quarter, but coughed it up only three times in the first half … the Lady Eagles shot 10-for-20 in the second half … Valley’s remaining schedule includes games against league leaders Bellefonte and Lewistown … Tyrone next plays Huntingdon on the road on Tuesday.
JUNIOR VARSITY
The Lady Eagle jayvees rallied from a four-point halftime deficit to cruise past Valley 52-43 in the early game.
Kayla Corle led Tyrone with 13 points, including three three-point baskets. Lindsay Christine scored 10, while Megan Turiano (8), Brooke Garbinsky (8), and Liz Tepsic (7) rounded out a balanced scoring attack.
Tyrone outscored IV by 12 in the third period to take control of the game.
VARSITY
Tyrone 64 Indian Valley 53
INDIAN VALLEY – Norris 1 2-2 4; Narehood 4 1-5 10; Mitchell 4 0-0 12; Mernin 0 0-0 0; Warntz 0 4-4 4; Bell 3 2-4 8; Tewksbury 3 9-10 15. TOTALS: 15 18-25 53.
TYRONE – McKenna 6 7-8 19; Ingle 1 2-2 4; Lloyd 2 1-2 5; McNelis 10 4-5 24; Hoover 2 3-4 7; Roth 0 0-0 0; Bradford 0 0-0 0; Bryan 2 0-0 5. TOTALS: 23 17-21 64.
Score by Quarters
INDIAN VALLEY 12 17 10 14 – 53
TYRONE 14 18 12 20 – 64
THREE POINT GOALS: Indian Valley 5 (Narehood 1, Mitchell 4).
Tyrone 1 (Bryan 1).
