Three games into their first rebuilding season since 1998, there was again good news and bad news for the Tyrone Lady Eagles last night in Alexandria against Juniata Valley.
The good news was that a third scorer began to emerge. Sophomore Ashley Roth scored a career-high 15 points to go along with nine rebounds, complimenting a sensational 23-point effort by junior Hilary McNelis, who has now scored 20 or more in two of Tyrone’s first three games.
The bad news was that the Lady Eagles surrendered 69 points, turned the ball over 18 times, and got beat down the floor in transition with alarming regularity in a 69-52 loss that dropped Tyrone to 0-3 on the season heading into Mountain Conference games this week against Bellefonte and Bishop Guilfoyle – two of the strongest teams in the league.
The Lady Eagles’ difficulty managing the Lady Hornets’ full-court pressure was compounded by an illnesses afflicting point guard Emily McKenna, who played despite a late arrival at school after battling a 100-plus degree temperature.
“We’ve got to learn how to handle pressure,” said Tyrone coach Jim Swaney. “This is the second game in a row where a team has jacked up the pressure on us and we just didn’t respond well to it.”
With athletic guards Claudia McDowell and Jenna Curley leading the way, Valley went chest to chest with the Lady Eagles from endline to endline for most of the game. That created turnovers, and the Lady Hornets showed early and often that they are a team that can finish in transition. Valley scored 19 points in the first quarter – three on foul shots,one on a Curley jumper, and the rest in transition, pushing the ball ahead off Tyrone baskets and miscues.
“I just said to our guards in the locker room, we just got a valuable lesson on how this game is supposed to be played from the guard position,” Swaney said. “Some of that is our youth and some of that is that we’re allowing people to play harder than we are. We lost the game down at Indian Valley because they scored layups off our turnovers and that was the outcome tonight, too.”
Curley led Juniata Valley with 21 points, while McDowell added 16. In all, Valley’s guards accounted for 47 of the Lady Hornets’ 69 points, despite JV’s overwhelming size on the interior with 6-foot posts Kristin Walters and Desiree Reed, who combined for just 13.
Curley scored eight straight points for her team in the second quarter, allowing Valley to build a 30-12 lead with 3:50 remaining in the half. But Tyrone responded with an 8-0 run that ended when Roth put back a missed McNelis foul shot to pull her team within 10 at the 2:27 mark. The Lady Eagles trailed 36-23 at halftime.
But any momentum Tyrone may have gained from its late charge in the first half was wiped out in the first five minutes of the third quarter, when the Lady Hornets went on a 13-4 run, sparked by three Curley baskets. Her layup with just under a minute left in the period put Valley ahead 56-31.
Roth scored seven in the fourth quarter and McNelis bucketed six, but it was too little, too late for Tyrone.
“Hilary has played well all year and she’s done a lot of nice things for us,” Swaney said. “This is clearly the best game that Ashley has played. She played very well.”
HOOP NOTES: Tyrone’s 52 points doubled Valley’s per game defensive average of 26 … the Lady Hornets improved to 3-0 … McNelis pulled down five rebounds and dished out four assists … the game marked the first time Tyrone had surrendered 60 or more points in three consecutive games since 1998, when the Lady Eagles gave up 73, 64, 67 and 74 respectively in losses to Central, Marion Center, Indian Valley and Dallastown to open the 1998-99 season.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Tyrone’s jayvees dropped to 1-2, losing to Valley 45-30. Sharon Long led Tyrone offensively with nine points, while Tiffany Bradford added eight points and eight boards. Marissa Hoover topped the Lady Eagles on the glass, pulling down 14 boards.
Tyrone trailed 13-11 after the first quarter, but never managed double-digit scoring in any period afterwards.
The Lady Eagles host Bellefonte on Wednesday with Jayvee action beginning at 6 p.m.
VARSITY
Juniata Valley 69 Tyrone 52
TYRONE – McNelis 10 3-4 23; McKenna 0 1-2 1; Wallace 1 3-4 5; Roth 7 1-3 15; Lloyd 1 2-2 4; Hoover 1 0-2 2; Ingle 0 0-0 0; Bradford 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 21 10-17 52.
JUNIATA VALLEY – McDowell 8 0-0 16; Mowrer 1 1-2 3; Curley 10 0-0 21; Heaster 3 3-4 9; Walters 3 1-2 7; Reed 2 2-6 6; Lane 1 3-4 5; Boyd 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 29 10-18 69.
Score by Quarters
Tyrone 8 15 12 17 – 52
Juniata Valley 19 17 22 11 – 69
Three point goals: Tyrone 0
Juniata Valley 1 (Curley 1)
JUNIOR VARSITY
Juniata Valley 45 Tyrone 30
TYRONE – Ingle 0 0-0 0; Bradford 3 2-3 8; Hoover 1 0-4 2; Glace 2 1-5 5; Long 3 3-4 9; Benakovic 0 0-0 0; Stanton 1 1-2 4; Walker 1 0-1 2; Bruer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11 7-19 30.
3-POINT GOALS: 1 (Stanton 1)
JUNIATA VALLEY – Feagley 0 1-6 1; Boyd 2 1-2 6; Howe 3 3-6 9; Gildea 5 4-8 14; Snyder 4 0-0 8; Borst 2 0-0 4; Boone 1 1-2 3; Colombo 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 10-24 45
3-POINT GOALS: 1 (Boyd 1)
TYRONE 11 6 4 9 – 30
JUNIATA VALLEY 13 13 12 7 – 45
Three point goals: Tyrone 1 (Stanton 1).
Juniata Valley 1 (Boyd 1).
