Tyrone and Bellefonte squared off for a battle of the top team in the MAC Wednesday night, both 5-1 in the conference and determined to take down that number one spot. A long trip in the snow extended even further as Tyrone couldn’t keep up with the fast-pace game of Bellefonte losing big, 68-51 in Bellefonte.
Tyrone started out to a slow start in the first, turning the ball over seven times and missing inside peeps that were costly to the Eagles scoring opportunities.
Bellefonte took control of Tyrone’s turnovers, converting several fast break lay-ups, but missed enough to keep Tyrone within two points after the first quarter of play.
Nothing seemed to go right for Tyrone, allowing Jordan Williams and Scott Johnson to crisscross in the paint for wide open lay-ups. Tad Chamberlain tried hard to fight past the screens, but Williams was finding seems in the paint and hitting open shots left and right. Even when Chamberlain allowed him a couple feet outside the perimeter, Williams knocked down the trey.
Bellefonte hit five of their nine three point field goals in the first half, feeding their lead on Tyrone going into the half. Tyrone had enough trouble guarding the post as well as the perimeter shots, but scored often on Bellefonte turnovers. The Raiders nine first half turnovers allowed Tyrone to stay in a reasonable range for the second half to start.
Down 33-24 after one half of play, Tyrone’s first place in the conference looked to be shifting toward Bellefonte’s side.
“I think we got out of our game,” coach Mike Harris said. “They started hitting three’s, so our guys got away from pounding the ball inside and started firing up three’s as well. Tad Chamberlain had four points in the first quarter and we just didn’t seem to get him the ball the rest of the game. Our job is to get the ball into the post and get the other team into foul trouble. That just wasn’t happening tonight.”
Tyrone usually leads the scoring by the half, but tonight things were not clicking on offense. The third quarter along with the rest belonged to Bellefonte as they outscored the Eagles in each of the four quarters.
The night continued to grow longer as Bellefonte ripped open an 8-0 run with 3:20 to go in the third quarter, 45-34. Tyrone had pulled to within seven points at one point, but that was as close as it would get after the 8-0 run by Bellefonte. Led by Williams and Settle, Bellefonte’s defense forced 10 second half turnovers by Tyrone that accumulated into several lay-ups from Williams and a couple of trey’s from Settle.
After the third quarter, Tyrone trailed by 13 and looked for answers in the crowd to help determine what to do next. Shooting just six free throws for the entire game wouldn’t be too hard to answer other than to drive to the basket, which Tyrone did not do much in last night’s game. Normally, Tyrone goes to the foul line over 20 attempts a game, and in last night’s game they were just four of six, well under their average which hurt them in the big game.
“We didn’t take it to the basket, it was obvious,” Harris said. “When you go to the foul line six times, it’s not going to get the job done. Leonard Wilson went to the foul line four times, and he was our leader. Our game is to take the ball to the basket and get fouled. We didn’t do that at all tonight.”
Kevin Hershberger was quiet tonight, hitting only one basket in the fourth quarter after averaging 15 points a game in his last three games. Being held to just two points for the game, the Eagles could only find answers from Wilson and Chamberlain who combined for 29 of Tyrone’s 51.
Tyrone drops in the Mountain League to second place with an 8-5 overall record and a 5-2 record in the MAC. Leonard Wilson led Tyrone with 17 along with Tad Chamberlain’s 12. Tyrone shot just 4-6 from the foul line, and turned the ball over 23 times.
Bellefonte improves to 13-3 and 6-1 in the conference, moving ahead of Tyrone in the conference standings. Four players hit double figures for Bellefonte, Jordan Williams leading all with 21. Dallas Settle hit four trey’s along with three from Cody Smith. Combined these two had 28 points from the backcourt offense.
Tyrone jayvee hold off a Raider comeback
The end of the game was a scoring battle between these two teams as Bellefonte tied the game at 26 all and looked to race for a finish. With time running down, both teams answered each other with lay-ups until the score was 32-30, Tyrone. With the pressure increasing on defense from Bellefonte, Steve Catich, Byron Kost, and Shane Barr managed to fight off defenders and drain clutch free-throws to seal the game, 36-32.
Steve Catich led Tyrone with 10 points along with Byron Kost’s eight points in the victory. Tyrone jayvee play at Clearfield Thursday night at 6:00p.m. in non-conference action.
Bellefonte was led by Denny Glunt who scored 12 points for the Raiders in their loss at home against Tyrone.
Tyrone travels to Clearfield Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in non-conference action.
Bellefonte 68 Tyrone 51
Tyrone- Wilson 7 3-4 17, Crabtree 2 0-0 4, Hershberger 1 0-0 2, Chamberlain 6 0-1 12, Clark 1 0-1 3, Corle 2 1-1 6, Haney 2 0-0 4 Kost 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 22 4-6 51.
Bellefonte – Smith 5 0-0 13 , Johnson 4 4-6 12, Settle 5 1-2 15, Thal 1 0-0 2, James 1 1-2 3, Williams 8 3-7 21, Brown 0 2-2 2. TOTALS 24 11-19-68.
Score by Quarters
Tyrone 10 14 17 10 – 51
Bellefonte 12 21 21 14 – 68
Three point field goals: Tyrone-3 (Kost, Clark, Corle).
Bellefonte-9 (Settle-4, Smith-3, Williams-2).
