Bald Eagle wins second tough contest in row; drops spunky Mount Union squad

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: January 14, 2020

Bald Eagle Area 63 , Mount Union 54

BEA 18 17 11 17 – 63

MU 14 11 14 15 -54

Scoring: Bald Eagle Area – Jaden Jones 5 4-6 15, Nate Hoover 4 0-0 9, Luke Wilson 2 0-0 4, Nick Maynard 4 7-9 15, Cole Parsons 3 0-0 8, Ayden Jodon 1 2-2 4, Alex Gavlock 2 2-2 8. Totals 21 15-19 63. Mount Union – Trey Hefelfinger 4 0-0 11, Jayvien Brumbaugh 2 1-4 7, Irvin Delo 7 3-3 20, Kobe Hand 3 4-7 10, Dayvon Wilson 3 0-0 6. Totals 19 8-14 54.

Played but didn’t score: Bald Eagle Area – Hayden Vaughn 0 0-0 0, Eathan Koleno 0 0-0 0. Mount Union – Ian Brodbeck 0 0-0 0, Lucas Barksdale 0 0-0 0, Sincere Randolph 0 0-0 0.

3-point shots: Bald Eagle Area – Jones, Gavlock 2, Parsons 2, Hoover. Mount Union – Hefelfinger 3, Brumbaugh 2, Delo 3.

JV score: Mount Union 43, Bald Eagle Area 35.

Records: Mount Union 3-6, 1-2. Bald Eagle Area 4-7, 1-4.

By Kenny Varner

MOUNT UNION – The Mount Union boys basketball team gave Bald Eagle Area all they could handle Monday night at home, keeping within striking distance from beginning to the end.

However, the Eagles has enough fire power to take the contest in a hard fought 61-54 victory in a non-league contest.

Mount Union’s Irvin Delo provides the offensive punch for the Trojans finishing with a game-High 20-point effort while Trey Hefelfinger and Kobe Hand finishes with an 11-point and 10-point effort, respectively.

Leading the way for the Eagles were 15-point performances by team leader Jaden Jones and inside force Nick Maynard. Maynard finished with his second consecutive double-double posting 16 rebounds to go with his 15 points.

Despite the loss, Mount Union coach Scott McClain was proud of the total team effort he got from his players.

“I liked the way the team battled tonight. But the last three games it’s been like a hit or miss whether we were going to play hard every night. So now we are getting that effort every night so now we got to work on the little things like second chance points and losing guys in transition. I like where we are going,” said McClain. “We have to get more effort like that every night. We didn’t shoot very well either. This was probably the worst shooting game we had in a while and we still were in it at the end.”

Going into the final stanza, the Trojans were in shooting distance of

Making a comeback, trailing only 46-39.

Bald Eagle came out with a quick triple by Nate Hoover, upping the Eagles’ lead to 10.

Mount Union came right back with a trey of its own on a shot by sharpshooter Hefelfinger, cutting it back to a 7-point contest with 6:40 left.

Maynard was a force to be reckoned with inside, posting up and hitting a shot in the lane, making it a 51-42 game.

Hand cut back into the opponents lead, hitting 1-of-2 from the line.

On the following possession, the Eagles got the ball into Jones’ hand and he took a tough runner in the lane to put his team back ahead by 10 with 4:57 to go.

Delo gave the Trojans fans something to cheer about as he not only hit a difficult triple from behind the 3-point line but was fouled on the play, giving him a chance at a rare 4-point play opportunity.

Delo was cool under pressure and hit the foul shot, putting the Eagles on the ropes cutting it to a 53-47 game with still 3:44 left in the contest.

After a Bald Eagle time out, the Eagles regrouped and got the ball to Alex Gavlock, who came off the bench, and he stepped up his game posting two from the charity stripe.

Back battled the Trojans once again, this time Jayvien Brumbaugh stepped back and launched a triple to make it just a 55-50 game with just under three minutes left.

But Gavlock wasn’t done after the foul shots. He got the ball back in his hands on the Eagles’ next touch and hit nothing but the bottom of the net as he hit a triple of his own to extend the lead to eight.

From there, the Eagles defense was able to keep the Trojans’ offense in check while outscoring them 5-2 the rest of the way for the victory.

“That win over Bellefonte was a big win for us. You could see the confidence as we got off the bus and getting onto the floor. We still have to fix those third quarters. We came out sloppy but we are regrouping at the right time,” said Bald Eagle Area Coach Bill Butterworth.

Heading out of the intermission, Mount Union’s offense came alive and was able to outscore Bald Eagle 14-11, setting up the drama in the fourth.

But early on, the Eagles’ offense was alive and well outscoring the Trojans 18-14 in the first and 17-11 in the second.

With the win, Bald Eagle improves to 4-7 while Mount Union dropped to 3-6.

In the JV contest, Mount Unionheld off a late rally by Bald Eagle to take the 43-35 victory.