Lady Raiders battle but falls late to Tyrone

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: February 6, 2023

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – Coming off a streak of winning 3-of-4, the Bellefonte girls continues to battle for a chance at a possible post season berth.

Monday, the young Red Raiders went up against the Mountain League second place team in Tyrone.

The Lady Raiders kept it close throughout the contest.

The Red Raiders finished with 31 rebounds while Tyrone finished with 28.

Bellefonte kept the contest within single digits until late in the contest where the Eagles were able to pull away, taking the contest 47-33 at Bellefonte high school.

Madison Ripka led the way offensively with 17 points. Teammate MacKenzie Ellenberger followed up with 11.

Defensively, Taylor Brown finished with a game-high 13 boards. Her defensive presence came up big in the second half of the contest.

On the Tyrone scoresheet, Alayna Woomer and Kayelin Gibbons proved a potent 1-2 punch finishing with a 23-point and 18-point effort, respectively. Both finished with a double-double while both pulled down 10 each.

Trailing 28-16 going into the third quarter, the Red Raiders came out and made a statement defensively. Ripka got the scoring started with a tough shot, cutting things to a10-point contest with seven minutes still to go.

Bellefonte forced Tyrone into numerous turnovers before Ellenberger would hit a clutch jumper, cutting it to eight at 28-20.

The Lady Raiders would get it to within five at 3:26.

However, Gibbons took the steal and put the ball in off the turnover, upping it to 30-23.

When the quarter ended, the Red Raiders were still within striking distance, trailing 35-26.

In the stanza, Bellefonte outscored the Eagles 10-7.

“We really just making sure we were talking about communicating on defense and just seeing the ball go into the high or low post that we had to drop in because they were diving in a lot of people to get that back pass and easy lay up,” said Toomer about his team’s strong defensive performance in the second half. “So really just being to communicate those things.”

The two would continue to battle into the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

Tyrone would wear down the Lady Raiders late en route to the 14-point victory.

However, the Lady Raiders showed that they weren’t going away without a fight and kept Tyrone on their toes throughout the game.

Bellefonte will be back in action Wednesday at home against Mifflinburg.

Tyrone 47, Bellefonte 33

T 13 15 7 12 – 47

B 6 10 10 7 – 33

Scoring: Tyrone – Riley Corl 1 0-0 3, Amariah Sprankle 1 0-2 3, Alayna Woomer 8 3-5 23, Kayelin Gibbons 8 2-4 18, Clair Lehman 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 5-11 47. Bellefonte – MacKenzie Ellenberger 5 0-1 11, Madison Ripka 7 1-2 17, Maria Cotter 1 0-0 3, Taylor Brown 1 0-6 2. Totals 14 1-9 33.

Played but didn’t score: Tyrone – Bree Paul 0 0-0 0, Alayna Greene 0 0-0 0, Bellefonte – Emma Rossman 0 0-0 0, Sydney Hamilton 0 0-0 0, Keira Whitman 0 0-0 0.

3-point shots: Tyrone – Corl, Sprankle, Woomer 2. Bellefonte – Ellenberger, Ripka 2, Cotter,