For the better part of three quarters, Tyrone’s game plan against the Bishop Guilfoyle Lady Marauders was working.
The Lady Eagles kept their defense packed into the key to limit the damage inflicted by Marauder sophomore Mary Forr, and watched as BG extended an 8-for-28 first-half shooting slump into 9-for-32 by the middle of the third quarter.
When Emily McKenna drained a three-pointer with 5:05 left in the period, Tyrone was leading 30-22 and the option to start using offensive possessions to run clock was only a couple of baskets away.
But what was even closer was a decision by Guilfoyle coach Mark Moschella to change the tempo of the game by picking up McKenna full-court with quick-footed sophomore Ashley Helsel. In that one defensive move lay the essence of the Lady Eagles’ 50-38 Mountain Athletic Conference Section II loss to the Lady Marauders last night in Tyrone.
While McKenna continued to battle offensively, the switch made starting an offense for Tyrone more difficult, and it made getting the ball to leading scorer Hilary McNelis virtually impossible. With the Lady Eagles’ No. 1 and 2 offensive options under wraps, it became just a matter of time before Guilfoyle made its move when it had the basketball.
The Lady Marauders improved to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in the MAC, while Tyrone dipped to 5-7 and 1-4.
“(Helsel’s) defensive pressure on McKenna was the absolute difference in the game,” said Tyrone coach Jim Swaney. “She’s quick and she’s a gutty kid, and she really came out and played hard on McKenna for the entire second half.”
“We wanted to try to make somebody else on their team run the offense,” Moschella said. “It was good pressure and things turned out in a positive way for us.”
The result was 16 Tyrone turnovers over the final two quarters to go along with 5-for-17 shooting from the field. What’s worse, McNelis, who was unstoppable in the first half with 16 points, had only four shots, making two of them, on her way to a 21-point night.
That neutralized an outstanding effort by Forr, who also finished with 21, despite a Tyrone defense that collapsed on her in the paint with each offensive touch. When that was enough to take her out of the flow of Guilfoyle’s offense, she went to work on the boards, scoring four baskets on put-backs.
“We were very concerned about Forr, and that was a tough match-up for us,” Swaney said. “We wanted to jam the lanes, and in the first half, they didn’t have some kids making shots. In the second half, they did.”
Guilfoyle did, but the Lady Eagles didn’t. Lindsey Sissler scored six in the second half to finish with 10, as did Amanda DeAntonio, while only Emily Lloyd – with a fourth-quarter lay-up – provided any points for Tyrone outside of its Big Two.
That was in stark contrast to Tuesday’s 20-point win over Huntingdon when three players scored in double-digits and nine made it into the scoring column. Last night, only four players scored for the Lady Eagles, while seven scored for BG, including six different players who chipped in points in the fourth quarter.
But that wasn’t the case early on. Guilfoyle went strictly to Forr in the first quarter, and the 5-11 post responded with eight points. But McNelis scored nine in the frame and McKenna hit a three-pointer with 23 seconds left to tie the game at 14-14.
The Lady Eagles held BG without a field goal over the last 1:55 of the first quarter, starting a scoring drought for the Lady Marauders that would last until the 1:09 mark of the second and eventually grow to 0-for-15. That allowed Tyrone to build an eight-point lead at 25-17 with 3:27 left in the half on a basket by McNelis, and the Lady Eagles took a 25-20 lead into the locker room.
It was a lead the Lady Marauders spent the third quarter chipping away at, and one they finally overcame with 39 seconds left in the period on a lay-up by Sissler, making it 32-31.
Forr made it 37-33 at 6:48 of the fourth quarter with when she converted on a conventional three-point play, and McKenna’s fourth three-pointer cut it back to a one-point lead 18 seconds later.
But that was as close as the Lady Eagles would get. Guilfoyle shot 4 for 8 from the floor and 9 for 17 from the foul line, using a 13-2 run over the last 6:18 to pull away.
“(Much of the game) was a carry-over from last night’s game,” Moschella said, referring to his team’s 60-49 loss at Lewistown on Thursday. “It had nothing to do with us being tired. We just didn’t shoot the ball well against Lewistown, and it was almost two quarters of carry-over from last night.”
HOOP NOTES: Guifoyle’s three losses have come against Altoona and Lewistown, two teams with a combined 21-0 record heading into last night’s action … McKenna led Tyrone with eight assists … McNelis topped Tyrone on the glass with eight boards, while Marissa Hoover pulled down seven … BG turned the ball over only 10 times to the Lady Eagles’ 23.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Guifoyle topped Tyrone in the junior varsity game 42-26 behind a game-high 12 points from Mara Wertz.
Kayla Corle, Megan Turiano and Lindsey Christine each scored six for Tyrone, which found itself down 27-11 by halftime. Nine different players scored for the Lady Marauders.
VARSITY
BISHOP GUILFOYLE 50 TYRONE 38
BISHOP GUILFOYLE – Forr 9 3-7 21; Sissler 4 2-4 10; DeAntonio 3 0-0 6; Geishauser 0 0-0 0; Steinbugl 2 0-0 4; Kitt 0 2-2 2; Carroll 0 3-7 3; Filler 0 0-1 0; Helsel 0 4-6 4. TOTALS: 18 14-27 50
TYRONE – McKenna 4 0-0 12; Ingle 0 0-0 0; Lloyd 1 1-2 3; Hoover 1 0-0 2; McNelis 9 1-2 21; Roth 0 0-0 0; Bradford 0 0-2 0; Long 0 0-0 0; Bryan 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 2-6 38
Score by Quarters
BISHOP GUILFOYLE 14 6 12 18 – 50
TYRONE 14 11 6 7 – 38
Three point goals TYRONE 6 (MCKENNA 4, MCNELIS 2)
JUNIOR VARSITY
BISHOP GUILFOYLE 42 TYRONE 26
BISHOP GUILFOYLE – Williams 2 0-0 4; Carroll 2 1-2 5; Kitt 1 0-0 2; Wolf 2 2-2 6; Neugebauer 2 0-1 4; Wertz 4 4-4 12; Craig 0 0-3 0; Wesner 1 0-0 2; Bowman 1 0-0 3; Nagle 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 17 7-12 42.
TYRONE – Bryan 0 0-0 0; Tepsic 1 0-0 2; Turiano 2 0-0 6; Garbinsky 1 0-0 2; Christine 2 2-2 6; Russell 2 0-0 5; Walker 0 0-0 0; Corle 2 2-2 6; Bartlebaugh 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10 4-4 26.
Score by Quarters
BISHOP GUILFOYLE 16 11 4 11 – 42
TYRONE 7 4 6 9 – 26
Three point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 1 (Bowman 1).
Tyrone 3 (Turiano 2, Russell 1).
