When the Bellwood-Antis girls began the 2006-07 season, nobody would have been crucified for thinking the season wouldn’t amount to much. There was a new coach in her first year as head coach of a varsity program, and the only real experience came from two girls who were only sophomores. The first few games showed a lack of experience, inability to bring the ball down the court and a lot of bad passes and missed shots.
However, like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, the Lady Blue Devils are starting to look like a basketball team, instead of those early days, when they too many times treated a basketball like a foreign unknown object.
On Wednesday evening against a tough veteran Claysburg-Kimmel squad with a 13-4 record this season and 30 plus wins over the past two seasons, the Lady Blue Devils showed up as a team with a future, a team that has already made tremendous strides over the first half of the season.
Although the final score Claysburg-Kimmel 62-32 looked like a blowout, for all of the first half and the first portion of the third quarter, nobody who saw the first game between these two teams back on Dec. 12, would have believed this was the same Bellwood-Antis team.
Playing without Liz Erickson, their big girl, who has been the leading scorer and rebounder in literally every ballgame, the Lady Blue Devils played and scratched and fought for every point and every rebound and every tie-up to hold Claysburg to 28 first-half points.
From the time Lauren Lender pulled up and hit a short jumper for the first bucket of the game, until Shalee Hunter popped in a basket at the end of the quarter to stop a frenzy of six points from the foul line for the Lady Bulldogs, the Lady Blue Devils played a nonstop mad rush through the opening quarter that had Claysburg-Kimmel struggling.
Brittany Webb drilled a trey to tie the game at 5-5 with 3:16 left in the quarter, but in a 1:05 period, Claysburg scored a quick eight points to get some breathing room before Hunter brought the B-A girls back to within six points at the end of the quarter 13-7.
Claysburg-Kimmel, playing with Lacey Claar, arguably the best girl basketball player in the county, came back at the start of the second quarter to build up a 22-9 advantage. The Lady Blue Devils only score in a 9-2 Claysburg run was a basket by Hunter. Not giving in, the B-A girls started a mini-rally of their own to cut the lead to 22-17. Hunter did most of the scoring, beginning with a pair of free throws, then two baskets, the second off a beautiful pass from Ashley Lechner, sandwiched around a bucket by Lender.
Claysburg-Kimmel added another run at the end of the period to take a 28-17 lead at halftime.
“I thought we played very well in the first half,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ali Stodart. “Our defense really stepped up and did a good job against Claysburg-Kimmel. It kind of forced them to do some things that they probably haven’t done. We closed the gaps well and took away some passes that are normally open. Our defensive slides were pretty good. To hold a team like Claysburg to 28 points without our big girl in there, we had some people step up and do a really good job.”
In the third quarter however, talent and experience took over for the Claysburg girls, allowing them to outscore Bellwood-Antis 23-7 for a three quarter lead of 51-24.
Two baskets by Victoria Lombardo, one by Hunter, who led the Lady Blue Devils with 12 points and seven rebounds, and one of two foul shots by Emily Derr kept Bellwood-Antis close, but Claysburg-Kimmel went on a rampage, scoring the final 15 points in the quarter. Christina Claar led the run with nine if her game total of 11 points in that three minute stretch.
With Claysburg-Kimmel playing four of their five starters until the 1:35 mark remaining in the game, the Bulldogs continued to build their advantage to the final 30 points over the B-A girls. Ashley Lechner buried a pair of three-pointers and Chelsea Young put in a short jumper from in front of the net for all the B-A scoring in the fourth quarter.
“We just started to panic offensively in the second half, we kind of got away from what we had been doing when they pressed us. We turned the ball over too many times,” said Stodart. “It comes back from having more experience. Liz wasn’t there for us to be a big target in the middle. The score is not really indicative of how hard the kids played tonight. From the first time we played them until tonight we have made tremendous strides. We had some people step up tonight, without Liz being there and proving to themselves that they can score too. We don’t have to rely on Liz all the time.”
Junior Varsity
Bellwood-Antis ran away with the junior varsity game, smashing Claysburg-Kimmel’s junior varsity 50-24, displaying an offense that was continually able to drive to the basket and score inside. Alycia Hippo led the Lady Blue Devils JayVees with 12 points and Laura Cherry added eight points.
Kelsa Harten scored nine points for Claysburg and Kristia Strayer scored eight points.
Bellwood-Antis (5-10 overall, 4-8 in the Juniata Valley League) steps outside of the JVL on Saturday night to host Tyrone in the makeup of the season opener that was postponed because of the Bellwood-Antis Eastern Semifinal football game against Steelton-Highspire on Dec. 1.
Claysburg-Kimmel 62 Bellwood-Antis 32
Claysburg-Kimmel – L. Claar 5 1-2 11, Leslie 5 0-0 11, Iachini 4 4-6 14, A. Claar 2 0-2 4, Luciano 2 0-0 4, Gerheim 1 2-2 4, C. Claar 5 0-0 11, Strayer 1 0-0 3, Meissner 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 25 7-12 62.
Bellwood-Antis – Ingram 0 0-0 0, Webb 1 0-0 3, Young 1 0-0 2, Lombardo 2 0-2 4, Lechner 2 0-0 6, Lender 1 2-2 4, E. Derr 0 1-2 1, Hunter 5 2-2 12, Jones 0 0-0 0, Hippo 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 12 5-8 32.
Claysburg-Kimmel 13 15 23 11 – 62
Bellwood-Antis 7 10 7 8 – 32
Three-point goals: Claysburg-Kimmel 5 (L. Claar, Iachini 2, C. Claar, Strayer).
Bellwood-Antis 3 (Lechner 2, Webb).
