Bellefonte uses 22-point third to topple Tyrone in Mountain League battle

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – Sweet revenge!

After losing to Tyrone in buzzer beater fashion in their first meeting, the Bellefonte boys basketball team made quite the statement Tuesday in their rematch, winning 57-42.

It was a battle between the top two in the Mountain League.

With the win, the Raiders tied the Eagles for the top spot currently.

Bellefonte was sparked by a 22-6 third quarter, putting them up by as many as 20.

Defensively and offensively the Red Raiders played their A-Game.

Blair Eckley-Jones hustled his way to an 18-point, 14 rebound, seven assist and a block night. He was just three assists short of a triple-double but still easily captured a double-double.

Joining Eckley-Jones in double-digit scoring was teammate Ty Kroell who finished with 15.

Tyrone was led by Landen DeHaas and Keegan Gwinn with a 12-point and 10-point effort, respectively.

“Basically what I told them was that we lost them at the buzzer. It basically came down to we have to pick up our defensive intensity and and help side defense,”said Bellefonte coach Rick Hall.”We have to sag off on the weak side and rebound. Everybody has to rebound. Earlier our guards were releasing too early and people were getting easy rebounds. But the whole team rebounded tonight. The defense was awesome. To me that’s a great defensive effort.”

Both teams finished the first half very close to one another. Bellefonte held a very slight lead at 22-19.

But coming out of the intermission, the Red Raiders upped their game to another level as both sides of its game came out ready to go.

Kroell opened the third period scoring as he was fouled in the process of shooting and he went to the line. He was a perfect 2-for-2.

After a Golden Eagle miss, the Red Raiders blazed their way down the court. After passing the ball around to set up the play, Eckley-Jones found an open Gannon Brungard heading up the line, upping it to a 26-19 contest.

Again, the defense forced Tyrone to make a difficult shot attempt. After the miss, Bellefonte set up their offense again and worked the ball around the three-point line and the ball found its way to Nick Way. Way set up and let it fly from beyond the 3-point line, making it a 10-point Bellefonte lead.

After a Tyrone turnover Bellefonte continued its hot shooting as they were able to find the right person at the right time.

With over three minutes left, Eckley-Jones got the ball in the paint and worked his way to the hoop. He went up for the shot and was hacked.

Eckley-Jones finished the 3-point play after hitting the and-one, keeping the offense rolling along while it’s defense was still throwing a shut out in the period.

Bellefonte added a triple by DJ McCaslin and a jumper from Way, upping things to a 37-19 contest.

Eckley-Jones foiled an offensive attempt as he stopped a Tyrone fast real with a spectacular block.

That would lead to a bucket by Cole Crissman.

With the bucket, Tyrone called a time out with 1:22 left in the period.

Tyrone got its first point of the period at 1:10 when Cortlynd Rhoades hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.

When the dust settled in the period, Bellefonte defense held the Eagles to six points while its offense sizzled with 22.

Going into the final stanza, the Eagles tried mount a comeback by going to a full court press defensively but Bellefonte bent but didn’t break as it was able to keep the ball for most of the period and kept the Tyrone offense to limited damage, outscoring the Red Raiders 17-12.

In the first period, the Eagles got off to a favorable spot, going into the second period with a 14-12 advantage.

But in the second, the Red Raiders started to hold their own, holding Tyrone to five points while their offense finished with 10, giving them the halftime lead.

In the JV contest, the Red Raiders kept to within striking distance but ran out of time, falling 60-54.

Bellefonte 57, Tyrone 42

TY 14   5   6 17 – 42

BE 12 10 22 12 – 57

Scoring: Tyrone – Landen DeHaas 5 1-2 12, Ross Gampe 3 0-2 6, Cortlynd Rhoades 1 2-3 5, David Lang 3 0-0 9, Keegan Gwinn 5 0-0 10. Totals 12 3-5 42.

Bellefonte – Ty Kroell 5 3-4 15, Nick Way 3 2-3 8, Cole Crissman 2 1-2 5, Gannon Brungard 3 1-2 7, DJ McCaslin 1 0-0 3, Blair Eckley-Jones, Alex Ebling 1 0-0 3. Totals 21 13-17 57.

Played but didn’t score: Jacob Johnson 0 0-0 0, Zac LeGars 0 0-0 0, Ashton Walk 0 0-0 0.

Triples : DeHaas, Rhoades, Lang 3. Bellefonte – Kroell 2, McCaslin, Ebling.