Bellefonte falls short in comeback

By rscaife
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Updated: January 7, 2017

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – Scores in sports can be very deceiving, such was the case Friday night when the Bellefonte boys basketball team faced up against a very tough Tyrone team in a Mountain League showdown.
Down three starters on the night, Coach Kevin Glunt’s team battled tough for three quarters erasing a double-digit deficit to just five points heading into the fourth quarter.
However, the momentum ended there as the Golden Eagles found their wings once again and ended the game on a 16-3 run en route to the 58-43 road victory.
“It seem like any time we made a run there something just didn’t go our way. There was a foul call or missed rebound, or we missed a layup around the basket,” Glunt said. “We had flows but we just couldn’t seem to get over the hump. It was really unfortunate because I thought we had it close going into the fourth quarter.”
Leading the way on the scoreboard for the Red Raiders was Center strongman Caleb Rockey who muscled and grinded his way to a 18-point performance.
Teammate Ben McCartney lit it up in the third quarter, netting 11 points in the comeback attempt.
Tyrone got a steady contribution from four of its players as they all dropped double-digit points in the victory.
Alex Weaver led his crew with 15 while Dylan Thomas finished one point behind, scoring 14.
Rounding out the double-digit scorers were Parker Mitchell and Jake Meredith who finished with a 12-point and an 11-point performance, respectively.
After the intermission, the Red Raiders found themselves trailing by nine points, 27-18.
McCartney came out scrapping his way to the basket, hitting three consecutive buckets to cut the lead to three.
However, Weaver wasn’t going to let the home team to continue the momentum and completed an old-fashion three point play. He was fouled going in for a lay up and hit the shot and got the foul, bumping the Tyrone lead to 30-24 with 6:40 left.
Off of a Bellefonte turnover Weaver was at it again, extending the lead to eight.
After a Bellefonte miss, the Golden Eagles got the ball back and Mitchell scored on a put back, making it a 10-point Tyrone lead with 5:26 left in the third.
The Golden Eagle lead would get to as many as 12 before the Red Raiders started its way back into striking distance.
Tyler Kreger got things rolling in the right direction when he drove the ball into the heart of the Tyrone defense for the lay in.
Mitchell once again spoiled the run, putting the lead back up via jumper.
McCartney caught a rebound and scored on a putback, cutting it back to a 10-point deficit.
Weaver took his turn of the spoiler, scoring once again to. Ounce it back up.
Rockey then took control inside scoring the next three points and then was able to get the ball back to teammate Tice for two uncontested buckets, bringing the deficit down to 40-35.
Michael Lewis ended the Red Raiders 7-0 run as he was a perfect 2-for-2 from the charity stripe.
However, Rockey and McCartney ended the period on a high note with a jumper and triple in the final 34 seconds to bring the game to a 42-40 contest with only eight minutes left.
Things broke down for Bellefonte in the final stanza as the Eagles’ offense spread the Bellefonte press and was able to score on numerous lay ins en route to the 16-3 run and 58-43 victory.
Rockey scored all three of his team’s points in the period.
I’m JV action, the Red Raiders were successful, beating Tyrone 50-43.