It\’s easy to understand why girls like to play in coach Roger Herto\’s system at Indian Valley.
The 12-year Warrior coach plays a lot of kids, wins a lot of games, and at the end of the day his scorebooks look like a youth league coach\’s dream: plenty of players scoring and lots of balance.
But that wasn\’t quite the case last night against Tyrone, and for a half it looked like the best opportunity for the Lady Eagles to pull off their biggest upset of the season.
Enter Megan Hartman. The 5-5 senior guard who has started for the Lady Warriors for four seasons put on a clinic in the third quarter, scoring 14 of her game-high 25, allowing Valley to extend a five-point halftime lead to 14. She hit foul shots, layups, three-pointers, caused turnovers and for a five minute span single-handedly dominated the Lady Eagles.
Valley went on to win 52-33, improving to 10-5 on the season and 1-0 in the Mountain Athletic Conference AAA division second cycle.
“Hartman and (Bishop Guilfoyle\’s Angela) Greaser are probably the best point guards in our league,” said Swaney. “She hurt us, she\’s a great player, and she deserves all the credit for a great game tonight. She took advantage of every mistake that we made.”
The Lady Eagles trailed by just three points (22-19) after junior Hilary McNelis scored on a spinning lay-in at the 6:25 mark of the third quarter and had withstood the blow of Valley\’s half-court trap, which limited Tyrone to one basket in the second quarter. But after a Lauren Schaff three-pointer made it 26-19, the Lady Warriors extended their pressure full-court, and Hartman took her game to another level.
Hartman scored Valley\’s final 14 points of the third quarter, three times scoring directly off Tyrone miscues and hitting a long jumper on the possession following a Tyrone turnover for another two. Her trey with 34 seconds left in the period made it 40-24 and capped a four-and-a-half minute span that saw her hit two three\’s, go 4-for-4 from the line and swipe four steals.
The Lady Eagles turned the ball over seven times in the period, and never recovered from the damage Hartman inflicted.
“Nothing that they did surprised us,” said Swaney. “But when we panicked, we put the ball on the floor too quick, and we turned it over too much in the second and third. And that was the ballgame.”
The loss dropped Tyrone to 3-12 on the season and extended a home-court losing streak that dates back to a December 15 win over Williamsburg. It also underscored what has become a serious problem for the Lady Eagles: on a team filled with athletes whom Swaney feels can be offensive threats, only two players scored more than two points.
McNelis again led the way, scoring 21 points while grabbing 10 boards and taking four steals. After her, four players combined to score the remaining 12 points, with Emily McKenna getting six of them.
That was part of the reason the Lady Eagles went without a basket for the first 2:30 of the game, scored just once in the second quarter, and went more than four minutes into the fourth quarter without a field goal.
“We talk about it everyday, saying we need offense from other people,” said Swaney. “For us to ever become a really good basketball team, we\’ve got to get more people involved in our offense. That\’s probably the biggest thing we have to do.”
However, offensive woes aside, Tyrone played one of its finest defensive games of the season. The Lady Eagles held a Valley team that earlier season had scored 63 on them to seven points in the first quarter – 20 in the first half – and made the Lady Warriors work for every open look in the half court.
McNelis scored nine of Tyrone 13 first quarter points and the Lady Warriors went without a field goal for the final 5:41 of the period as the Lady Eagles built a six-point lead.
A Hartman basket 4:23 into the second tied it, and a 9-0 Valley run to close the first half gave the Lady Warriors a 20-15 lead at halftime.
Hartman then took over after the break, and at one point scored 18 of her team\’s 20 points over a seven-minute span in the third and fourth.
HOOP NOTES: Uncharacteristic of a Valley team, only five Lady Warriors scored….Tyrone turned the ball over 12 times in the second half ….McKenna had six rebounds and four assists … the Lady Eagles host 6-6 Dubois tonight in the middle game of a 3-game set at home.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Sharon Long scored five points and grabbed six boards, but the Tyrone jayvees fell to Indian Valley 39-18.
The Lady Warriors made five three-pointers in the game, and Tyrone struggled on shots in the paint, resulting in a paltry five-point output in the first half.
VARSITY
Indian Valley 52 Tyrone 33
INDIAN VALLEY – Hartman 9 4-4 25; Shellenberger 0 1-2 1; Van Gavree 0 0-0 0; Harlacher 3 0-0 8; Mitchell 0 0-0 0; Mernin 0 0-0 0; Tewksbury 3 1-2 7; Schaaf 4 0-0 9; Mundy 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20 6-8 52
TYRONE – McNelis 7 6-7 21; McKenna 3 0-0 6; Ingle 0 0-0 0; Lloyd 1 0-0 2; Roth 1 0-0 2; Wallace 0 0-0 0; Hoover 0 0-0 0; Bradford 0 0-0 0; Long 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 6-7 33
Score by Quarters
Indian Valley 7 13 20 12 – 52
Tyrone 13 2 11 7 – 33
Three point goals: Indian Valley 6 (Hartman 3, Harlacher 2, Schaaf 1).
Tyrone 1 (McNelis 1).
JUNIOR VARSITY
Indian Valley 39 Tyrone 18
INDIAN VALLEY – Narehood 4 0-0 10; Collins 0 0-0 0; Summers 0 0-0 0; Harman 3 0-0 7; Bell 2 0-0 6; Mernin 1 1-2 3; Parks 4 0-0 8; Schulze 2 1-2 5; Reinke 0 0-0 0; Kauffman 0 0-0 0; Shearer 0 0-0 0; Warntz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16 2-4 39.
TYRONE – Bradford 1 0-0 2; Hoover 1 0-0 2; Long 2 0-2 5; Roth 2 0-0 4; Lloyd 0 1-2 1; Ingle 1 0-0 2; Glace 1 0-2 2; Walker 0 0-0 0; Russell 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 8 1-6 18
Score by Quarters
Indian Valley 11 7 17 4 – 39
Tyrone 3 2 4 9 – 18
3-POINT GOALS: Indian Valley 5 (Narehood 2, Bell 2, Harman 1).
Tyrone 1 (Long 1).
