Week in Review: Girls Varsity Basketball

Tyrone girls basketball wins three of four games for the week.

Freshman Kasey Engle defends against a Philipsburg attacker.

The Lady Eagles basketball team had a full schedule the week of January 20th after an almost complete week of break.

Tyrone hosted three contests: Southern Huntingdon on Monday, Philipsburg on Friday, and Tussey Mountain on Saturday. The girls were on the road versus Bellefonte that Wednesday.

Southern Huntingdon, Bellefonte, and Philipsburg were all games that ended in Tyrone’s favor.

“I thought we played great as a team and moved the ball very well,” said freshman starter, Kasey Engle, on the Bellefonte game. “Our press worked very well. We kept getting steals and fast breaks. [However], the second quarter we slacked off and didn’t score as many points.”

Tussey Mountain was the biggest game of the week. Although Tyrone battled relentlessly for the majority of the game, it did not end in the Eagles’ favor.

“When we were in transition we were making things happen,” said head coach Luke Rhoades, as quoted in the Altoona Mirror. “When we slowed down, we struggled in the half court. We couldn’t hit shots when needed and turned it over at key times. [Tussey Mountain] runs a very good offense and it’s tough to battle back when you get down 10.”

The game began with a 7-0 lead in Tussey’s favor after 2 minutes. Toward he end of the first quarter, Tyrone began to rack up some points before the buzzer sounded, leaving Tussey still in the lead, 13-6.

The Titans scored early in the second quarter, putting themselves in a 15-6 lead. Senior Jordyn Swogger helped the team gain momentum by scoring 8 points in the second period.

Tyrone then had a 12-0 run, with some help from 6 Tussey turnovers. However, with almost 1:30 left in the period, the Titans came back with a 3-pointer and 2 buckets, leading Tussey 23-22 at the half.

With 4:40 left in the 3rd quarter, the Lady Eagles scored, putting them in the lead, 28-27 for the last moment of the game.

Tussey then went on an 11 point streak, helped by 4 turnovers from Tyrone. Sophomore Finnley Christine scored with 2 seconds left in the quarter, putting Tyrone down by 7 points.

Tussey made a bucket after 3 minutes into the 4th quarter. The Titans then went 4-4 on the foul line, while Swogger made a basket with 57 seconds left to spare in the game. The score ended, 46-33 in Tussey’s favor.

Rhoades said to the Mirror: “These are games we need to battle hard and we did for the most part. We have to score more than 33 points, though.”

“We played hard, but we gave up too many points early,” said freshman Alexis Cannistraci. “That made it hard to recover.”

At the end of the week, the girls won 3 out of the 4 games they played.

The girls now hold a 13-4 record. They travel to Clearfield today, February 4th, for their last away game of the season.