Basketball

Guilfoyle holds off late run by Golden Eagles for victory

By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic and Tyrone entered Thursday's boys basketball game at Pleasant Valley gymnasium as the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds, respectively, in the District 6 Class 3A playoff race.

For the first 18 minutes of the game, it looked like no one in 3A might touch the Marauders this season a year after they lost to Penn Cambria at the buzzer in the district final.

BG went on a 13-0 run that began at the end of the first half and continued into the third quarter to go up by 23 points before the Golden Eagles staged a furious comeback before ultimately falling short, 65-57.

"BG is a great team in the district, a great team in the state and a storied program, no doubt about it," Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades said. "It depends on where we go with this. If we use this as a springboard for the rest of the season, this atmosphere was great for us. If we can build off of this and continue to work to be where we need to be, I think we can finish strong this season. But if we let this game get to us and we pout about some things we didn't get accomplished, it could turn the other way too."

Tyrone cut the deficit down to as small as five on a layup by Kendall Lehner with 1:32 left. Lehner scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, mostly on layups.

"The second half, we were really out of place defensively on the help side," Bishop Guilfoyle coach Ryan Lestochi said. "We were not where we were supposed to be or where we coached them to be. They ran the same action multiple times, and we were not sticking to the game plan. They burned us pretty good in the second half."

With one minute to play, Tyrone got the ball back down by six but missed two good looks from beyond the 3-point line that could have made it a one-score game and baskets by Taurean Consiglio and Trevor Rehm helped put the game away for the Marauders, who improved to 9-2 and remained unbeaten in Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference play.

"We have been playing really good and moving the ball good," Rehm said. "We are learning to play with each other, and I feel really great about it. We're playing with three new starters who didn't get a lot of time last year, and we have improved a lot since the start of the season, and we keep getting better."

Rehm finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks.

"I have worked on my midrange game more," Rehm said. "I have expanded my shot selection, and it's helped me score more points, and I have been able to space the floor, which helps me open things up for my teammates."

Tyson Lestochi led Bishop Guilfoyle with 16 points, Jude Haigh added 13 points and nine rebounds and Consiglio scored 11 points.

"We have come a long way since we took over in the spring," Ryan Lestochi said. "We just really believe in this team and think we have a high ceiling. We're not quite where we want to be. We're a little tough on them as coaches, but they have come a long way and worked really hard. We just think we have another gear we can get into."

Tyrone managed just 17 points in the first half before scoring 20 points each in the third and fourth quarters.

"We made good passes and we finished around the hoop," Rhoades said. "It was pretty simple. The first half, I bet we missed 10 layups or shots around the hoop. We also turned the ball over where guys had open looks. In the second half, we didn't do that."

Sam Crilly led the Golden Eagles with 19 points. Eli Woomer scored nine points off the bench, and Brady Ronan had 10 rebounds for Tyrone, which fell to 7-5.

"What I want to see from my team is the way they played the second half," Rhoades said. "Their effort -- they were diving, rebounding and getting after it -- I loved the energy out on the floor, and that's what I want to see the rest of this year."

Lestochi would prefer to see more of what he saw from his team in the first 18 minutes.

"The first half we played with a lot of energy and were in the right spots in our defensive rotations," Lestochi said. "We did a really good job walling the ball off, taking charges and keeping the ball in front of us."

TYRONE (57): Crilly 5 7-7 19, Escala 2 2-2 7, Walk 1 1-2 3, Lehner 8 1-2 17, Crowell 0 0-2 0, Woomer 3 3-4 9, Ronan 1 0-0 2. Totals -- 20 14-19 57.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (65): Lestochi 6 4-5 16, Haigh 3 6-6 13, Tr. Rehm 5 4-6 14, Gates 4 0-0 8, Consiglio 5 0-0 11, J. Kissell 1 0-0 2, C. Kissell 0 1-1 1, T. Ruggery 0 0-0 0, Foor 0 0-0 0, K. Ruggery 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 24 15-18 65.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Tyrone 6 11 20 20 -- 57

Bishop Guilfoyle 13 19 16 17 -- 65

3-point goals: Tyrone 3 (Crilly 2, Escala); Bishop Guilfoyle 2 (Consiglio, Haigh).

Records: Tyrone (7-5); Bishop Guilfoyle (9-2).

Officials: Brandon Hoover, Skip Dry, Dave Heim.

JV: Bishop Guilfoyle, 71-64. High scorers--Ashton Emigh, T, 22; Grant Okonak, BG, 21.