The Golden Eagles continued another strong showing Wednesday night against Bald Eagle after exposing a young but athletic Williamsport team on Monday.
With nine seniors on this year’s squad, the starting lineup for the Golden Eagles looked a little different than usual. Coach Rhoades wanted to give all of his seniors a start, so Tyrone began the Bald Eagle game with five seniors on the floor: Dante Novak, Ethan Dasher, Drew Escala, Sam Crilly, and fan favorite Logan Harpster, but the commotion ended rather quickly.
However, just two minutes into the game, Bald Eagle had already gained an 11-0 advantage, forcing Rhoades to make some changes on the floor.
With the regular starters back in, Tyrone eventually found their groove and cruised to a 62-42 victory against a much improved Bald Eagle team.
Tyrone was led with another balanced attack from Sam Crilly who led all scorers with 19 points.
Ashton Emigh recorded 10 points and 6 rebounds in just 14 minutes. Seniors Drew Escala, and Kendall Lehner chipped in 8 each, and Junior Eli Woomer added 10 points.
“We started slow but picked up our pace as the game went on, however, we cannot afford to start off playing down to our competition,” senior Sam Crilly said.
The Golden Eagles regained the advantage early into the second quarter and Held a 35-26 advantage into halftime. Tyrone never looked back and pushed their lead to twenty by the final buzzer winning 62-42. The key to victory for the Golden Eagles was the blistering defense, especially in the second half where they allowed just 16 points.
This growing intensity since the end of January has had the Golden Eagles buzzing with confidence. The boys are gaining more trust defensively, which has generated a surge of points in transition and off of turnovers. Along with the defensive success, the Golden Eagles controlled the boards, pulling in 9 offensive rebounds and thirty-one rebounds overall.
“The rebounding helped us get our offense going, and gave us energy to keep our defensive intensity,” Landon Hamer said.
Tyrone improved to 15-4 record (11-4 LHAC) and can lock down the three seed in AAA district playoffs when they go on the road, Friday 2-7 vs Bellefonte (4-15).
