Bald Eagle Area falls to Hollidaysburg
By Kenny Varner
WINGATE – Thursday night, the Bald Eagle boys basketball team met up with a veteran-laden Hollidaysburg team who were returning 10 players from last year’s squad in their own gym.
The Golden Tigers got off to a strong start and was able to keep the Eagles offense off balanced for most of the night resulting in a 58-27 Tigers win.
“We couldn’t generate any offense. It’s as simple as I can make it,” said Bald Eagle Area’s coach Kris Glunt. “Our shots weren’t falling. I thought we got some good looks.”
Hollidaysburg had 11 different players post points on the scoreboard. In the process, the Tigers also pulled down 31 boards.
“They (Hollidaysburg) are a really good basketball team. They are returning 10 letterwinners from a year ago. I expect them to have a great season,” said Glunt. “ I did expect us to compete a little bit harder tonight. But the silver lining for me was I thought we did some things well at times. But offensively we have to figure out how to put the ball in the net.”
Leading the way offensively for Bald Eagle was Wade Habovick and Dru Smith who both posted five in the contest. Teammate Kaden Burns finished with four.
The Tigers were led by Jacob Hileman with 11 and Leyton Weimert who posted 10. Cole Walters followed closely with seven. Rounding things out were Mason Goodman, Brady Steiner and Jay Albarano all with six.
Bald Eagle took the lead to start the game as Wyatt Spackman hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.
Weimert gave his team the lead as he was hacked in the process of shooting and was a perfect 2-for-2 from the line.
Attacking the boards early and often, Hileman hit consecutive lay ups, upping the lead to 6-1 forcing Bald Eagle to call an early time out.
After a triple by Hollidaysburg’s Steiner, the Eagles got back on the board when Cam Watkins hit 1-of-2, making it a 9-2 game.
Goodman added a bucket extending the lead to nine.
Watkins again got fouled his next time in the paint. He was perfect cutting things to an 11-4 opening stanza.
But the Tigers had an answer for everything the Eagles threw at them.
Jakob Snyder hit his only points with 1:39 left in the first, extending the lead once again to nine, 13-4.
Bald Eagle hit 2-of-4 from the free throw line, keeping the Tigers’ lead to seven.
With a final foul shot by Hollidaysburg’s Weimert the first quarter ended at 14-6.
The shots continued to fall for the Tigers in the second while its defense allowed only seven while its offense finished with 17.
When the two teams went into the intermission, Hollidaysburg led 31-13.
With all the momentum coming into the second half, the Tigers rode that wave as it outscored the home team 27-14 en route to the victory.