Both Golden Eagle varsity basketball team’s seasons came to an end on Friday, February 21 in Huntingdon High School’s gym.

Girls vs. Juniata

The sixth seeded Lady Eagles started out Tyrone’s night against third seed Juniata.

The Eagles had problems getting their offense rolling and fell to Juniata, 44-36. The girls played well defensively, holding Juniata junior Victoria Varner to only 6 points while she needed only 18 to reach the 1,000 point milestone.

Following the game, Luke Rhoades, coach of the Lady Eagles said, “Our defensive scheme worked well. We shut down Varner, but sometimes they caught us and we gave up weak side layups. You give that up when you take something away. ”

“I’m very proud of Finnley Christine defensively she did a great job on Varner,” added Rhoades.

A big topic after the game was the officiating.

“This was one very poorly officiated game,” said Rhoades, “I don’t know how this crew got a playoff game. To be honest, there’s no way with a three versus a six seed that we should have had this crew.”

When asked about the officiating, senior Jordyn Swogger told the Eagle Eye, “[Coach Rhoades] never blames the game on the [referees], so it must have been pretty bad and I agree that it was.”

While their season came to a tough end in the district quarterfinals, the Lady Eagles definitely have some good points to look back on, including Swogger reaching her 1,000 point mark, a respectable 17-6 final record and a Mountain League Championship.

Boys vs. Central

The boys experienced offensive problems of their own, as well as disagreements with the officiating in their defensive struggle against Central.

The seventh seed Dragons upset the second seed Golden Eagles 36-33.

After the teams had split their two games in the regular season, this matchup appeared as though it would be closer than an average 2-7 seed.

Brandon Gripp led the Golden Eagles in scoring with 11 points after averaging 21.5 points on the season. Tyrone’s high scoring combination of Gripp and Jordan Miller were held to only 21 combined points, far below their season average of 38 points per game.

The Golden Eagles were leading 19-11 at halftime and 21-12 with 1:10 left in the third quarter before the Scarlet Dragons began their comeback.

Gripp fouled out, causing Tyrone to be without their leading scorer for the last 4:36 in the game.

“The thing that upsets me most is that I’ve never seen a kid who is one of the top players in the area not get calls like he does,” George Gripp, coach of the Golden Eagles. “[Brandon] would get fouled and then get frustrated and go in and charge or do something, but it is what it is.”

“We played hard. We just went into an offensive slump,” said Coach Gripp.

A disappointing ending for a Tyrone team that had district championship expectations for the year, but the boys did finish with a 17-6 record—nothing to scoff at.

Both teams have starters returning next year that promise some successful future seasons for Golden Eagle basketball teams.