Rhoades

MARTINSBURG — Tyrone boys basketball coach Luke Rhoades was a target of social media drama from earlier this week surrounding the Golden Eagle football program.

Rhoades, who serves as the school’s athletic director, found an escape through the negativity on Wednesday evening when the Golden Eagles won a defensive battle on the road at Central, 35-30, in a Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference matchup.

“This has been a terrible 36 hours for me personally because of keyboard warriors that just went after me,” Rhoades said. “My team came together for me tonight. I’m so proud of them. They saw what people were writing. Tonight was about basketball. They let me escape this tonight by coming out here and playing their tails off.”

Neither team was particularly sharp on the offensive end, but the Golden Eagles had just enough of a cushion early in the fourth quarter to take home the win.

Tyrone (11-7) led by a dozen at 25-13 after a Carter Gwinn 3-pointer in the first minute of the fourth quarter. It was Gwinn’s third from long distance, giving him the team-high with nine points.

“We had a tough loss at Williamsport Monday night, but this is amazing to come in here and play team basketball and execute,” Gwinn said.

Tyrone led 31-25 with 16.6 seconds to play when the Golden Eagle bench and Rhoades were hit with technical fouls after Mason Emigh was hit with an offensive foul for his fifth foul of the game.

Out of the four free throws, Central (12-6) hit just two of them in what was a golden opportunity to steal the game from the Eagles.

“It’s just the emotions of the game,” Rhoades said. “Our guys got a little emotional at the end. We got called for that foul and took a layup away. We overreacted. The bench got the technical, and it is what it is. It happens, and I like our guys playing with passion. I like us playing as a team.”

After Tyrone’s Eli Woomer hit a pair of free throws on the other end, Central’s Jesse Muthler banked in a 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds left to make it 33-30.

Woomer sank another pair of free throws on the other end to seal the game.

It was a particularly frustrating night for Central coach Paul Frederick, who said his team played well enough on the defensive end. The Dragons had just nine field goals for the game.

“We had eight points at halftime, and we were down seven. It’s ridiculous,” Frederick said. “It’s a really frustrating game because I thought we really battled on defense. Our kids have been doing that all year long for the most part. Tyrone has some really good offensive players, and I thought we did a good job guarding them.”

Both teams struggled in the early going with the Eagles taking a 5-2 lead after the first quarter.

Dylan Hoover had seven of his team’s eight points in the first half, and had 15 for the game to lead the Dragons.

“The first half we didn’t move the ball well enough, and we didn’t get great looks,” Frederick said. “In the second half I thought we had tremendous looks. We just obviously didn’t make enough.”

Both teams are back in action on Friday night. Tyrone will play host to Huntingdon in another LHAC game, while Central visits Hollidaysburg, which is also a conference machup.

TYRONE (35): Gwinn 3 0-0 9, Woomer 2 4-4 8, A. Emigh 2 3-4 7, M. Emigh 0 0-0 0, Walk 3 1-2 7, Parsons 0 0-0 0, Oakes 0 0-0 0, Rudden 1 2-2 4. Totals — 11 10-12 35.

CENTRAL (30): Muthler 3 0-0 8, Heuston 0 0-0 0, Hoover 4 6-10 15, Beltz 0 0-0 0, Dickson 1 1-2 4, Decker 0 0-0 0, Rhodes 1 0-0 3, Reynolds 0 0-0 0. Totals — 9 7-12 30.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Tyrone 5 10 7 13 — 35

Central 2 6 5 17 — 30

3-point goals: Tyrone 3 (Gwinn 3); Central 5 (Muthler 2, Hoover, Dickson, Rhodes).

Records: Tyrone (11-7); Central (12-6).

JV: Central, 56-41. High scorers–P. Scott, C, 15; Sweitzer, T, 13.