The 11-2 Tyrone Golden Eagles suffered their second loss of the season, 66-65 to Westmont Hilltop on Monday night, January 19th.

The good news: It was not a league game and will not affect Tyrone’s standings in the MAC.

The bad news: any loss to a 6-6 team will not help Tyrone in District 6 rankings and playoff seeding.

Although Westmont Hilltop was 6-6 coming into the game, they didn’t look like it.  The Hilltoppers’ star player and premier scorer Conor Mendelson came into the game with a shooting percentage of 27%.  Against Tyrone he was 9 for 10, cashing in on 5 of 6 from three point land.

Tyrone, on the other hand,  was sluggish and sloppy from the start, characteristics that the Eagles can seldom be described as.

“We made a lot of fundamental mistakes out there tonight that we have got to clean up,” said head coach George Gripp, “and if we can’t fix fundamental mistakes we are going to get beat and that’s just what happened tonight.”

Regardless of how or why Tyrone lost the game, they will look to rebound off this loss and use it as a learning experience.

The team has an away game against the pitiful 0-13 Philipsburg Mounties on Wednesday night and a home game against the scrappy 6-5 Central Dragons on Friday night. Hopefully these two manageable games will propel the Eagles back to normalcy.

“We definitely took a step backwards with the loss to Westmont. But we have to move on. We have some big games coming up. Hopefully we can learn from this,” senior guard Tristan Lingafelt said.

There isn’t much to be said about the Philipsburg game. If anything, it is good timing to have this game after a loss because it will be a good opportunity for Tyrone to clean up some of their game.

However, Friday’s game against Central is one Tyrone should not take lightly. The Dragons are very athletic and talented, even if their record doesn’t reflect it. Their guards are simply lethal from deep, and all five starters are scrappy. Anytime Tyrone plays Central, a slugfest is expected.

Even though Tyrone took a step backwards with a loss against Westmont, they can get right back on track with a couple wins this week.