The Lady Eagles finally returned to the District Championship Game. A game they had not been to since 2011’s loss to Hollidaysburg. This time, Tyrone got to face West Shamokin. This Shamokin team more height on their team than any opponent Tyrone had faced yet. This height proved to be the difference this game after West Shamokin won 58-42 in a game where they dominated the paint. 21 of West Shamokin’s 25 field goals came within a couple of feet of the basket, most of them put backs or layups, and West Shamokin won its first girls basketball district championship.

“Definitely, their size and toughness were hard to deal with,” Tyrone senior guard Kasey Engle said. “We couldn’t handle them on the boards, and they were getting so many offensive rebounds. We struggled with that collectively.” 

The only time Tyrone had the lead in the game was after storming back from down 11-5 to lead 16-15 in the middle of the second quarter. West Shamokin quickly countered with their own 12-3 run to end the half.

West Shamokin also dominated the boards with their 33-18 rebounding advantage and suffocated the Lady Eagles’ inside presence.  Many of these rebounds came on the offensive end for Shamokin and were converted into easy put backs.

“We said coming in that we needed to jam the lane,” Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades said. “We knew that they were very tough inside, and they just beat us up inside. They destroyed us inside. That was the big difference. We knew that, we talked about it as part of the gameplan to jam the lane, but we just didn’t execute the gameplan.”

Senior Kasey Engle finished with 23 points. West Shamokin had three different players score over 15 points.

“We’ve got to figure it out,” Engle said. “I guess we just have to keep our heads up. We have to practice as hard as we possibly can and try to move forward.”

WEST SHAMOKIN (58): Glover 2 1-4 5, Orlosky 8 1-2 18, Huth 8 1-3 17, Fusaro 6 4-9 16, Clowser 0 0-0 0, DiFilippo 0 0-0 0, Olinger 1 0-0 2. Totals — 25 7-18 58.

TYRONE (42): Kosoglow 1 0-0 2, Engle 7 6-7 23, Cannistraci 3 0-0 7, Shaw 2 0-0 6, Lehman 0 0-0 0, Wagner 1 0-0 2, Ronan 1 0-0 2. Totals — 15 6-7 42.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

West Shamokin 13 14 17 14 — 58

Tyrone 11 8 9 14 — 42

3-point goals: West Shamokin 1 (Orlosky); Tyrone 6 (Engle 3, Shaw 2, Cannistraci).

Records: West Shamokin (24-2); Tyrone (24-4).

Officials: Dan Gales, Mike Conron, Jeff Fisher