Mounties offense sizzles against young Bald Eagle squad

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: January 22, 2021

By Kenny Varner

WINGATE – Off to a strong start!

In his first year at the helm of the Philipsburg-Osceola basketball team coach TJ Anderson has the Mounties to a posting a 3-2 record.

Their only loss on the season was two games versus Clearfield.

The PO squad made a statement Friday as they defeated a young but hardworking Bald Eagle squad coached by first year coach Kris Glunt, 66-32.

For the Eagles it was their first game of the season as Covid-19 set their season back.

Philipsburg-Osceola was led by Jacob Desimone as he posted a game-high 18-point effort.

Teammate Ryan Whitehead was a strong force inside and out as he posted 15 points and 10 boards for the double-double.

Rounding out the leading scorers were Oliver Harpster and Jeremy Whitehead with nine each.

Bald Eagle’s offense were led by Alex Garlock and Hayden Vaughn with 10 apiece.

Ayden Jodon posted six.

“I’m extremely proud of them. The kids worked really hard tonight. Bald Eagle is a good team. They really are,” said Anderson. “We went out and did what we needed to and went ahead and handled the tempo. We created the opportunities we had tonight.”

The Mounties got off to strong start as it went right to the heart of the Eagles defense using both its outside game and inside.

DeSimone got the game scoring started on a triple less than a minute into the game.

Ryan Whitehead, who recently passed the 1,000-point plateau, pulled down an offense of rebound and scored on a put back, quickly putting his team up 5-0.

After forcing a turnover with its high octane defense Jeremy Whitehead went strong inside and was fouled as the bucket went in. He missed the back end of the three-point play but still gave his team a little of breathing room.

Again, the Mounties forced a turnover and when the PO offense set up its offense, Ryan Whitehead showed he could hit from long distance as well, knocking down a triple, upping the lead to 10-0.

Vaughn ended the Eagles’ scoring drought as he went right into traffic for the put in.

This time Bald Eagle forced a turnover and they cashed in, giving the ball to Alex Gavlock. While fouled on the missed shot, Gavlock went 2-for-2 from the charity stripe to get his team to within eight.

But the Mounties went on a 4-0 as DeSimone and Ryan Whitehead notched baskets.

Vaughn ended another PO run , keeping the Mounties lead to eight.

But Philipsburg-Osceola ended the quarter as strong as it started, posting the last seven points , giving them a 21-6 advantage.

But Bald Eagle refused to go away as they played the Mounties close holding the Mounties to only 13 points while its offense was able to churn out 10.

“This is the first game in a long journey. We have a very inexperience team,” said Glunt. “Our goal is to get batter every game. We have one kid that has had any varsity’s action. We also had an off season where we had some unprecedented times that we didn’t have an opportunity to gel and get system in place. This is just step one. We are going to stay positive and work hard and we’ll get back at it tomorrow.”

The Mountie went into the intermission leading 33-16.

Coming out of the break, the PO offense went back to its scoring ways posting 22 points while the Eagles fought for an 8-point period.

In the final stanza, the Eagles played with pride and battled to the very end before the final buzzer ended the contest at a 11-8 period en route to the 66-32 win.