Mirror photo by Michael Boytim Members of the Tyrone 2000 District 6 championship team present on Friday are (from left): First row—Ron Shoenberger, Paul Miller, Doug Roseberry, coaches Garth Ericson and Dave Panisiti. Second row—Pat McNelis, Brad Tuskovich, Mike McNelis, Eric Latchford, Anthony Stever, Eric Castorina, Tyler Beckwith, coach Doug Pfeffer, head coach Don Wagner.

By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

TYRONE — On a night Tyrone honored the team that won the school’s only high school boys basketball District 6 championship, Johnstown’s Donte Tisinger etched his name into the Trojans’ record book.

The senior, who announced his commitment to Division I Boston University in October, needed 23 points to become the school’s all-time leading scorer and finished with 27 points to bring his career total to 1,735 in Johnstown’s 59-46 win Friday over the Golden Eagles.

“They are a great team,” Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades said. “Tisinger is a heck of a player. He’s premier. There are times you think you have him guarded, and he just shoots, and it looks smoother than you can even imagine.”

One of those times came with Tyrone trailing by just six with 2:15 to play when Tisinger got free for his sixth 3-pointer of the game that basically ended the Golden Eagles’ upset bid.

The Trojans improved to 17-0.

“He’s very special,” Johnstown coach Ryan Durham said. “He broke the all-time school record tonight. That’s why the kids are making goat (to signify ‘greatest of all time’) noises and dousing him with water. The kid works really hard and deserves everything that he gets. He’s a special player. He’s very coachable.”

Tyrone’s Andrew Escala scored on a layup with 4:17 to play that cut Johnstown’s lead that was once 16 points down to four.

“I thought we played really good defense and forced tough shots,” Rhoades said. “When we battled back, I thought we responded well, and defensively is where it began. We have to keep working on that.”

But the Trojans held Tyrone scoreless the rest of the game while finishing on a 9-0 run.

“We preach about being mentally tough on the defensive end,” Durham said. “Stops are how you win games. A lot of guys had to step up. We were without (Dom) Alberter again tonight. He tried to go early, but he was very sick. He played a minute and said he was done, but the guys who came off the bench really contributed.”

The Golden Eagles found themselves in a 14-point hole just minutes into the second quarter thanks to seven live-ball turnovers that led directly to points for Johnstown.

“We talked about that all day at practice yesterday,” Rhoades said. “Pregame today, I told them we couldn’t have live-ball turnovers. In fact, I told them if they felt pressure, just turn and throw it to their parents in the stands. That’s better than giving a live-ball turnover. Really, if you look at the difference in the game, it was probably live-ball turnovers and layups off of those.”

Johnstown is currently the top seed in District 6 Class 5A while the Golden Eagles, who fell to 13-4, entered the night as the No. 3 seed in Class 3A.

“I want us to keep improving our defense,” Rhoades said. “I think we grew up a little bit tonight defensively. I was a little discouraged with how we played Monday. We won, but I thought our defense was terrible. Tonight, we took steps forward defensively, and I think if we keep taking those steps forward, we might be able to make the playoffs.”

At halftime, Tyrone honored its 2000 District 6 championship team that defeated Huntingdon, 70-62, at DeGol Arena behind eventual Altoona Mirror Player of the Year, Eric Castorina, who finished his career with 1,216 points and went on to play collegiately at IUP.

Castorina now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, is married and has two daughters, aged 12 and 9.

“It was great,” Castorina said. “A lot of these guys, I haven’t seen for years. It was a nice little reunion for us. Also, getting a chance to watch the boys play this year was pretty cool.”

All proceeds from Friday’s Tyrone boys and girls doubleheader against Johnstown went to the Steve Catich Memorial Fund, another former Golden Eagle star, who played college basketball at Wheeling Jesuit before passing away in 2017 at the age of 27.

JOHNSTOWN (59): Tisinger 10 1-2 27, Am. Robinson 5 1-1 11, Alberter 0 0-0 0, Braswell 1 0-0 2, Armstrong 1 0-0 2, Carr 2 2-4 6, Ashcom 3 0-0 8, Au. Robinson 1 0-0 3. Totals — 23 4-7 59.

TYRONE (46): Crilly 6 2-4 15, A. Walk 2 0-0 4, Escala 5 2-2 15, Lehner 1 0-0 2, Woomer 2 0-0 5, Hamer 0 0-0 0, A. Emigh 1 3-4 5, M. Emigh 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 7-10 46.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Johnstown 17 16 15 11 — 59

Tyrone 9 13 17 7 — 46

3-point goals: Johnstown 9 (Tisinger 6, Ashcom 2, Au. Robinson); Tyrone 5 (Escala 3, Crilly, Woomer).

Records: Johnstown (17-0); Tyrone (13-4).

Officials: Rich Gergely, Chris Rickens, Brandon Hoover.

JV: No game.