Emigh led the Golden Eagles with 26 points and 13 rebounds as Tyrone staved off Penn Cambria, 56-53 in a back-and-forth game in the tournament’s opening round Monday night at the Tyrone Area High School gymnasium.

Tyrone (4-3) will face Claysburg-Kimmel — a 59-51 first-round winner over Bellwood-Antis Monday — in tonight’s 6 p.m. tournament championship game.

Emigh scored 22 of his 26 points over the first three quarters, then hit two big free throws with 13 seconds left to stake Tyrone to a three-point, 56-53 lead that proved to be its final margin of victory.

“I thought that he played a heck of a game,” Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades said of the 5-foot-11 Emigh. “He finished smooth around the hoop all night for us, and he hit those big foul shots at the end.”

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Tyrone's Ashton Emigh and Penn Cambria's Blake Nadolsky dive for a loose ball.

Penn Cambria coach Jim Ronan, whose team slipped to 4-3 and will face Bellwood-Antis in today’s 3 p.m. tournament consolation game, also gave due credit to Emigh.

“Number 4 was a beast for them,” Ronan said of Emigh. “We had a difficult time trying to guard him. I thought that he played a tremendous game.”

Senior guard Eli Woomer also came up big for Tyrone in the fourth quarter, scoring all 13 of his points in the second half, including six in the final quarter. Woomer hit three 3-pointers on the night.

“Eli hit some big shots for us in the second half,” Rhoades said.

Penn Cambria, which got a game-high 30 points and 14 rebounds from senior forward Caden Gibbons and 16 points and 12 rebounds from senior forward Landon Semelsberger, trailed, 42-39 after three quarters but rode a 13-5 run to take a 52-47 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

A sequence of events punctuated by a technical foul assessed a Penn Cambria player opened the door for the Golden Eagles to rally back, however.

After Emigh scored from the key, junior Ben Walk scored on a putback to pull Tyrone to within 52-51 with 1:14 left. Walk was fouled on the play, and the technical was assessed to Penn Cambria.

Woomer made one of the two technical foul shots to tie the game, 52-52, and Tyrone retained possession as a result of the technical, paving the way for Walk to score off an inbounds feed to put the Golden Eagles ahead to stay, 54-52.

“We were up five and then an unfortunate series of events occurred with the technical,” Ronan said. “That was a difficult swing to overcome.”

Gibbons hit one of two free throws to pull Penn Cambria to within 54-53, but Emigh was fouled and hit his two big free throws to seal the deal for Tyrone.

“Penn Cambria is a physical, well-disciplined team and they hit shots when it mattered tonight,” Rhoades said. “But our guys deserve credit. They didn’t fold, and they stuck with it.

“It’s really exciting to watch how our players keep battling and how they respond to adversity,” Rhoades said.

PENN CAMBRIA (53): Gibbons 13 1-2 30, Semelsberger 7 0-0 16, Lilly 2 0-0 4, Jones 1 0-0 3, Nadolsky 0 0-0 0, Himmer 0 0-0 0, Gides 0 0-0 0, Marshall 0 0-0 0, Mallory 0 0-2 0. Totals – 23 1-2 53.

TYRONE (56): A. Emigh 10 6-9 26, Woomer 4 2-4 13, M. Emigh 1 0-0 2, Gwinn 4 0-0 9, Walk 2 2-7 6, Parsons 0 0-0 0, Oakes 0 0-0 0, Stroup 0 0-0 0, Rudden 0 0-0 0, Zupon 0 0-0 0. Totals -21 10-19 56.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Penn Cambria 17 11 11 14–53

Tyrone 14 12 16 14–56

3-point goals: Penn Cambria 6 (Gibbons 3, Semelsberger 2, Jones); Tyrone 4 (Woomer 3, Gwinn).

Records: Penn Cambria (4-3); Tyrone (4-3).

Officials: Rich Gergley, Ethan Vipond, Mike Kresowich.