No matter the sport, the community always gathers together to watch the Tyrone and Bellwood rivalry, and each year the teams never fail to put on a good show.
Monday night was no different as the Lady Eagles faced the Lady Blue Devils at the Tyrone Area Middle School gym.
Tyrone fought hard and walked away with a 56-41 win and a sense of pride that can only be felt after beating a rival.
“We did a good job of finding girls open, and played defense very well,” said sophomore Bri Parker, who scored 13 of her game-high 16 points in the first half.
This was the team’s second meeting of the season. The Lady Eagles beat Bellwood in the annual Kiwanis holiday tournament 50-38. Monday’s game ended similarly withTyrone winning 56-41.
The Lady Eagles started with a strong first quarter taking a 14-4. Starting senior Alayna Greene had one point from the free throw line and starting junior Claire Lehman added 2 more.
Sophomore Olivia Newlin had an amazing first quarter with an and-one, making her foul shot and adding 3 more points to Tyrone’s score.
Tyrone sophomore Brielle Parke ended the quarter with 8 points, making her the highest-scoring player of the first quarter. She drained in two foul shots and had great finishes in the paint.
The Lady Blue Devils struggled to score during the first quarter. Bellwood junior Lily Gerwert, was the only Blue Devil to make a shot from the field. Bellwood’s other two points were made by Norton, who was fouled and took the opportunity to drain in 2 foul shots.
“We played very well in our press tonight, and that gave us some momentum and some early buckets off some steals and deflections,” Tyrone Head Coach Mike Whitling told the Altoona Mirror, “And once we got the lead, we never looked back.”
In the second quarter, Tyrone’s Lola Woomer and Parker both scored 5 points. Greene added onto her foul shot, draining a shot from the three-point line.
Junior Claire Lehman had her highest-scoring quarter with a total of 7 points.
Lehman had no problem knocking down a three and afterwards, had 4 more points from the key.
Bellwood’s post Lily Gerwert got fouled twice in the second quarter and made all four of her foul shots. Jenna Norton drained a 2 pointer and Cacciotti made a layup and drained a three. This made the score 34-17 going into halftime.
After halftime, the Lady Eagles came out confident in their skills. Greene took a shot from inside the three-point line and added two more points. Alayna Woomer added her name onto the board scoring a total of four points, and junior Rylan Crowell drained in a 3.
Although Bellwood did a good job on defense, holding Tyrone to 9 points in the third quarter, they still struggled to make their shots.
They only scored 7 points in the quarter, 4 by Gerwert. Norton had a 2 pointer and Sweiagert had 1 point from a foul shot. This made the final score 43-24 at the end of the third.
The Lady Blue Devils came into the fourth quarter determined to make the game as close. Bellwood had their highest-scoring quarter in the fourth with 17 points. Clapper came out with 5 points, a 3-pointer and a two-pointer. Gerwert had 2 points off of foul shots, and Norton had 2 points from inside the three-point line, along with Sweigert, Cacciott, and Plummer.
The Lady Eagles scored 13 points in the 4th quarter. Alayna Greene made two layups, Laney Woomer knocked down a three and then had an and-one, making her foul shot, and Brielle Parker made a 3.
The Lady Eagles had an effective offensive game, scoring double digits in three of four quarters. They executed their game plan and overall did a great job working as a team and getting the job done. They walked into the game confident in their skills and ultimately had the drive to get the win against the Bellwood Blue Devils.
BOX SCORE
BELLWOOD-ANTIS (41): Clapper 2 0-1 5, Cacciotti 3 0-0 7, Norton 3 4-4 10, Gerwert 4 6-8 14, Sloey 0 0-0 0, Sweigert 1 1-3 3, Turek 1 0-0 2, Plummer 0 0-0 0, Waite 0 0-0 0, Campbell 0 0-0 0. Totals – 14 11-16 41.
TYRONE (56): Crowell 1 0-0 3, Greene 4 1-2 10, Lehman 4 0-1 9, Parker 6 2-2 16, A. Woomer 4 1-1 10, L. Woomer 2 0-0 5, Newlin 1 1-1 3, Volders 0 0-0 0, Gr. Naylor 0 0-0 0, Gen. Naylor 0 0-0 0, Houck 0 0-0 0, Totals – 22 5-7 56.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bellwood-Antis 4 13 7 17–41
Tyrone 14 20 9 13–56
3-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 2 (Clapper, Cacciotti); Tyrone 7 (Parker 2, A. Woomer, Crowell, Greene, Lehman, L. Woomer).
Records: Bellwood-Antis (7-6 overall, 6-4 in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference); Tyrone (7-4, 6-4).
JV: Bellwood-Antis, 37-27. High scorers–Karlie Sweigert and Isabella Sloey, BA, 8; Grace Naylor, T, 8.
