Bellwood-Antis defeated Mount Union last evening at the Bellwood High School gym in a game that was a real tale of two halves. Bellwood-Antis came out shooting ice cold from the floor and went 0 -6 from three-point range before the Blue Devils hit their first trey with 2:38 remaining in the opening quarter.
Both teams were playing high pressure defense from the opening tip. It was up and down the floor with shots off the mark from both teams. Each team was getting just one shot, as they both were grabbing down defensive rebounds. The first quarter came to a close with Mount Union out in front by a score of 11-9.
There was not too much difference during the second quarter, with both teams letting bombs fly from outside the three-point circle with little success. When missed shots were not banging off the rims, the high pressure defense on both sides resulted in numerous turnovers. Both teams were only able to put eight points each on the board in the second quarter. The half came to an end with Mount Union up by the score of 19 -17. Neither team was able to pull away and get into a pace that was going to help them offensively. The first half closed with Bellwood shooting a dismal 27 percent from the floor thanks to a two for thirteen stretch from the three point range. Mount Union could fair just a bit better canning 36 percent of their shots in the first half.
“I told our team at halftime that tough times don\\\’t last, tough people do,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach Tim Keech referring to the poor shooting percentage. The B-A kids took the message to heart as they came out to start the second half and just played so hard both offensively and defensively. “Assistant coach Stinson had them working really hard this week on defense in practice and it showed tonight,” said Keech.
B-A scored the first five points of the third quarter to work their way out to a 22-19 lead. At the same time the defense of the Blue Devils had turned it up a notch as they did not allow a point until six minutes had ticked off the clock.
Bellwood-Antis then forced a turnover and Ben Hatch came down and drilled a three point shot with just 30 seconds left in the third quarter to put B-A up 27-23. The defense came up huge again, as they forced yet another turnover. With only three seconds left in the third quarter Blaze Winterstein drove the lane for a two-point layup to increase the Bellwood lead to 29-23 at the end of three. B-A’s defense had given up only four points to Mount Union for the third quarter of play.
Bellwood scored the first four points of the fourth quarter before Mount Union could respond with a tip in by John Martinez to put B-A up 33 – 25. Bruno Degol then hit a three-point shot at the 5:15 mark of the final period to put the Blue Devils up by 11. Mount Union came back for two, but Bellwood-Antis would score the next four points, all from Anthony Jenkins who hit back to back jumpers for Bellwood. The last coming at the 1:29 mark putting the Blue Devils up by thirteen at 42-29. “That run there really took them out of their game and forced them to go for the three point shots,” added Keech.
Bellwood-Antis’ defense held Mount Union to only eleven points for the entire second half, while the offense turned it up a notch and scored 27 to give Bellwood it\\\’s fourth win in a row 44-30.
During the post game comments, Coach Keech stated they he “thought we played our hearts out on defense.”
Keech said, “the second half we went more inside to get the open shots. Our kids did not get rattled and we did not panic. Our depth off the bench showed big tonight, as we were able to keep someone fresh on Martinez all night long. He is the real deal.”
Bellwood-Antis’ next game will be this Friday evening as they travel to Williamsburg.
Game Notes: Bellwood-Antis shot 36 percent from the floor and held Mount Union to just 29 percent from the floor. The Blue Devils won the battle of the boards with 30 rebounds to Mount Union\\\’s 27. Wertz led B-A with 10 rebounds and Hughes added nine. Wertz was high scorer for Bellwood-Antis with 11 points, while Martinez topped Mount Union with 16. Bellwood is now 4 – 0 on the year and Mount Union dropped to 5 – 3. Mount Union won the J.V. game 43 – 41. B-A’s J.V. team is now 2 – 1 on the season. Nick Degol, Bruno DeGol and Nate Gray each scored 8 points for Bellwood.
Bellwood-Antis 44 Mount Union 30
Bellwood-Antis: Christner 1, 0-0, 3, Winterstein 1, 0 – 1, 2, Hatch 2, 0 1, 6, Wertz 5, 1-1,11, Elvey 1, 0 -0, 3, B. DeGol 1, 0 -0, 3, Miller 2, 0 -0, 4, Hughes 3, 0-1, 6, Jenkins 3, 0-0, 6 TOTALS: 19 1 – 4 44
Mount Union: Walters 0, 0 – 0, 0, Sentman 1, 0 – 0, 3, Park 2, 0 – 1, 4, Martinez 7, 0 – 0, 16, Hollibaugh 1, 0 – 0, 2, Stewart 2, 1 – 2, 5 TOTALS: 13 1 – 3 30
Mount Union 11 8 4 7 – 30
Bellwood-Antis 9 8 12 15 – 44
Three-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 5 ( Hatch 2, Christner, Elvey, DeGol)
Mount Union 3 (Martinez 2, Sentman)
