Bellwood-Antis and Southern Huntingdon opened a busy week for the Blue Devils at Bellwood on Monday evening. For most of the game the two schools battled tooth and nail. There were eight ties and 11 lead changes and an extra period was needed before Bellwood-Antis finally outscored the Rockets 63-60.
Tyler Elvey opened the game with his first of five three-pointers and then dished off to Alan Wertz for a layup and a 5-0 B-A lead, only to see Southern come right back to score the next six points and jump into the lead. Elvey popped in a two-pointer butthe Rockets scored four to take a 10-7 advantage. Elvey nailed a trey to tie the game, before Matt Baer put the Rockets up three with a basket and foul shot. B-A senior Paul Christner buried a three from the corner with 24 seconds remaining to get a 13-13 draw after one quarter. That was pretty much the way the next four quarters went as well.
It was evident that although they made significant contributions, the Bellwood-Antis football players, who have only been back less than a full week, are nowhere near being in basketball shape, which if you have to ask, is not the same thing as football shape. Different movements and coordination are required for each of the different sports, although certainly, being in good shape in one sport will help when moving to another. Alan Wertz and Anthony Jenkins each benefited from the play of the other in the post, when both are just back from the football team, and each had valuable minutes against the Rockets.
“We are not even close to being in basketball shape,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach Tim Keech. “I am at a real advantage right now, because even though we are not in basketball shape, we can bring so many people off the bench. They are coming off the bench, they are contributing, and the best thing is, they are on the bench picking each other up. Alan Wertz goes in for Anthony Jenkins. Anthony comes out, as well as he is playing, and he says, ‘come on Alan let’s go.’ Then Alan goes in and he just had a great second half. He’s going to get better, he’s only had three practices.”
Josh Crull fired in a trey to tie the game at 44-44 at the end of three quarters and the two squads traded buckets for the next eight minutes to close out regulation dead even at 53-53.
Josh Jones opened the four-minute overtime period with a basket to put Southern on top 55-53, but Bellwood-Antis, which remained undefeated at 3-0, scored the next eight points to take the 61-55 lead.
Elvey fired in his fifth trey for the 11th and final lead change, Christner hit one of two free throws and Blaze Winterstein buried four straight foul shots.
“For two years, I thought that kid (Tyler Elvey) was a shooter,” said Keech. “This year he is showing me he’s a maker. I just told him, ‘you have the green light, son. When you feel you have it, take it. You’re going to miss some, but I just feel the majority you are going to make.’ And he doesn’t have to worry about it. He can just sit back and shoot the ball”
Baer, who led all scorers with 24 points, hit two foul shots and closed out the scoring with his fourth trey with 0:25 left. In between the free throws and trey by Baer, however, B-A junior Ben Hatch added two shots from the foul line to ice the victory.
Long-range shooting kept the game close throughout the contest for both adversaries. In addition to those already mentioned, Southern’s Crull closed out the first half with a pair of treys that took the Rockets from being down two points to going into the locker room at halftime leading 27-23. Hatch twice pumped in three-pointers in the third quarter, each time bringing the Blue Devils back into the lead. Baer opened the second quarter with a trey that gave Southern Huntingdon a 16-13 lead right off the bat, and Elvey threw in one from nearly halfcourt to draw B-A into a 19-19 tie a bit later.
“Sometimes, I just don’t think people understand what is going on with this team,” said Keech. “We are not close to the team we are going to be. We are feeling our way through, trying to get the ones we know we can get, trying to protect our home court. This is going to be a darn fine basketball team by the end of the year.”
Junior Varsity: Bellwood-Antis won the junior varsity game 58-38, behind a balanced scoring effort. Bruno DeGol led the Blue Devils with 12 points and Nick DeGol, Eli Austin, Anthony Jenkins and Tyler Geis each scored eight points. Nate Gray had six steals and five rebounds and Nick DeGol added five rebounds and four assists.
Jason Lang led Southern Huntingdon with 20 points.
Bellwood-Antis (3-0) will host Mount Union, on Wednesday, Dec. 20 ,in a game originally scheduled for Dec. 7, but postponed because the football team played Southern Columbia the next day.
Bellwood-Antis 63 Southern Huntingdon 60, OT
Southern Huntingdon – Baer 7 6-10 24, Crull 5 0-0 12, Jones 4 0-0 9, Grissinger 3 1-2 7, Booker 2 4-6 8, Goshorn 0 0-0 0, Knepper 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 11-18 60.
Bellwood-Antis – Hatch 2 4-6 10, Christner 4 1-4 10, Winterstein 0 6-8 6, McCrum 0 0-0 0, Wertz 4 1-1 9, N. DeGol 0 0-0 0, Elvey 8 0-0 21, B. DeGol 0 0-0 0, Miller 0 0-0 0, Hughes 0 0-0 0, Jenkins 3 -12 7. TOTALS 21 13-21 63.
Southern Huntingdon 13 14 17 9 7 – 60
Bellwood-Antis 13 10 21 9 10 – 63
Three-point goals: Southern Huntingdon 7 (Baer 4, Crull 2, Jones).
Bellwood-Antis 8 (Elvey 5, Hatch 2, Christner)
