Basketball

BG gets spot in tourney

The Pleasant Valley gymnasium certainly didn't live up to its name Friday night as Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic beat Tyrone, 72-58, in a District 6 3A consolation game that neither team was hoping to be playing.

The Marauders entered the playoffs as the top seed coming off a Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship game win over District 6 4A champion Johnstown, and the Golden Eagles had won eight straight games before beating Penns Valley in the quarterfinals.

But rather than meet in Friday's championship game, both teams lost their semifinal games and some of the frustration from those losses seemed to spill over into the consolation game to decide which team advanced to the PIAA playoffs as District 6's third-place finisher.

In the end, after some players went back and forth, warnings were issued, and two fans were ejected, Bishop Guilfoyle came away with the win.

Jude Haigh led the way for the Marauders with a 36-point effort, and Trevor Rehm had 15 points and 15 rebounds.

"Our main goal was to be at Mount Aloysius tonight and it was always to win a district title this year," Haigh said. "We got stopped, and now we have a different journey. We came in here tonight with the mindset of either basically bagging it or fight it, and everyone chose to fight it. Our mentality was to get into the state tournament and make some noise when we got there."

Bishop Guilfoyle will play WPIAL runner-up Burrell on Saturday, March 9. Burrell entered the WPIAL playoffs as the No. 11 seed but upset sixth-seeded Seton LaSalle, third-seeded Shady Side Academy and second-seeded Mohawk before losing Friday's championship game, 55-49, to Deer Lakes, which played in the PIAA championship game last season after beating Penn Cambria in the semifinals.

Tyrone's Sam Crilly made three free throws with 1:58 left in the first half to cut BG's lead to 31-26, but the Golden Eagles missed several chances to get even closer before settling for a seven-point deficit at the half.

"This game goes back to the second quarter in my opinion," Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades said. "We had four or five possessions where we got stops, and we didn't get shots up. It was a (five)-point game at that point, and it was three or four possessions we didn't get a shot up. We went into halftime down (seven), but it felt like 12, because we could have been tied or had the lead. It could have been a totally different game."

Ashton Walk's three-point play to start the third quarter cut the lead to 34-30, but Haigh drilled a 3-pointer about a minute later to start a 12-1 Marauders run.

"Offensively, we kept answering," Bishop Guilfoyle coach Ryan Lestochi said. "We weren't worried about who was scoring. We were just taking the open shot and we're a much better team when we're doing that."

Tyrone pulled within 11 on Eli Woomer's 3-pointer with 4:53 left, but Rehm finished a three-point play on which Walk fouled out with 4:15 left that put the game away. Rehm was playing with some extra fire after he had a jump ball pulled from his hands early in the game by Andrew Escala, who had some words for Rehm and was given a warning.

"When Trevor plays at the rim, he's a lot to deal with," Lestochi said. "He's obviously got size and athleticism. We want him crashing offensive boards. We tell him if he goes to get an offensive rebound, no one can stop him from getting the ball. He really crashed the boards hard tonight."

Woomer led Tyrone with 18 points off the bench. Crilly added 15 points, Walk scored 11 and Kendall Lehner had five points and 11 rebounds. Tyrone finished 17-7.

"Next year we're not going to be learning the system or learning the way we want to play defense, but we have to make some ground up in some other areas though," Rhoades said. "We have a lot of guys coming back, but so do the last two teams that beat us. That is one of our big things we talked about in the locker room after the game. We can't just come back. We have to make big strides this offseason."

The Golden Eagles graduate two seniors, Dravyn Crowell and Brady Ronan.

"They are two great teammates and two hard workers," Rhoades said. "They are great athletes. I'm glad Brady came back out. He was a major factor in our stretch run and did a great job. Dravyn did a great job handling pressure all year running the point for us and did a lot of great things. The team will miss them and their intensity a lot."

The Marauders (22-4), who lost in the first round of the PIAA tournament last year, get a week off before likely traveling to Burrell on Saturday.

"Win or go home, and our boys were ready for the moment and attacked it," Haigh said. "We played well together tonight."

TYRONE (58): Crilly 4 6-8 15, Escala 2 0-0 5, Walk 5 1-2 11, Lehner 0 5-6 5, Crowell 1 0-0 2, Woomer 6 3-4 18, Ronan 1 0-0 2, M. Emigh 0 0-0 0, A. Emigh 0 0-0 0, Harpster 0 0-0 0, Parsons 0 0-0 0, Oakes 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 19 15-19 58.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (72): Lestochi 1 4-4 6, Haigh 12 8-8 36, Tr. Rehm 5 5-9 15, Gates 1 1-2 4, Consiglio 3 0-0 6, C. Kissell 1 0-0 2, T. Ruggery 1 0-0 3, J. Kissell 0 0-0 0, Robertson 0 0-0 0, Ty. Rehm 0 0-0 0, K. Ruggery 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 24 18-23 72.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Tyrone 11 16 15 16 -- 58

Bishop Guilfoyle 17 17 20 18 -- 72

3-point goals: Tyrone 5 (Woomer 3, Crilly, Escala); Bishop Guilfoyle 6 (Haigh 4, Gates, T. Ruggery).

Records: Tyrone (17-8); Bishop Guilfoyle (22-4).

Officials: Billy Pfeffer, Craig Andros, Dan Solomon.