East Juniata gets strong road win at BEA

By Kenny Varner
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Updated: December 23, 2014

East Juniata 52, Bald Eagle Area 20

WINGATE – It was a tough night on the court for the young Bald Eagle Area girls team as they went head-to-head with the highly experienced and veteran East Juniata girls team from the Tri-Valley League.

The Tigers came roaring out of the block, posting 17 points in the first period while its defense held the Eagles to just four points.

Leading the way for the victors were Laurel Amey with 16 points and Megan Graybill with nine. All three of Graybill’s shots were triples from beyond the arc.

In a losing effort, Bald Eagle got a 9-point effort from Haley Giedrac. Teammates Alyssa Ward and Elizabeth Wellar finished five points appeace.

But even in defeat the Bald Eagle girls battled to the end, outscoring the Tigers 10-2.

“They never gave up. We just made too many mistakes mentally. There were careless turnovers and we didn’t execute the offense but we’re young,” Bald Eagle coach Troy Butterworth said. “We have a lot of freshman and a lot of sophomores. They just keep battling no matter what the score. They don’t give up. That’s the positive we can take out of it. The negative we turn the ball over too much. We can’t make foul shots, we can’t make jumps shots and we have a bad shooting percentage. We got to work on it in practice. On the bright side we are young and we have a few years to work on it.”

Things started out ominously for the Eagles when East Juniata’s Val Leonard stepped back from behind the 3-point line and sent one that hit nothing but the bottom of the net, making it 3-0.

Neither offense got off to a blazing start as both teams looked tough on the defensive side in the first three minutes of play.

However, a second Tigers triple, this one by Megan Graybill put the visitors up by six with 4:56 left in the opening period.

Bald Eagle retaliated with a runner in the paint by Alyssa Ward, cutting the lead to four.

An early turnover by the Tigers put the ball back in the Eagles’ hands and they made the most of it. In transition, the Eagles got the ball into the hands of Elizabeth Wellar. She did not disappoint, putting in from down low, cutting the lead to only two with 1:47 left in the quarter.

From there, the Tigers went on a up tempo run, finishing out the quarter outscoring the Eagles, 11-0. In the run, Amey led the way with four points while teammate Shelly Gabel hit an old fashioned three-point play, scoring on a lay up and was fouled in the process.

Defensively, the Eagles had a strong second quarter, holding the Tigers to only 10 points.

However, its offense continued to struggle from the field, scoring just five.

As the intermission came, East Juniata held a strong 27-9 advantage.

When the third quarter got underway, the Tigers exploded for its biggest output of the day, collecting 23 points while defensively, East Juniata allowed just one point in the quarter, making it a mercy rule contest going into the final stanza, at 50-10.

Though the Eagles posted 10 points in the final stanza, it was too little too late as the Tigers left the Eagles’ gym the victors in a 52-20 contest.