It is only the second game of a long season, but the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils showed two things. First, they can play under pressure without folding. Secondly, they have depth. Both were keys in Bellwood\’s 50 – 46 win over the Black Knights of Moshannon Valley.
Both teams started out ice cold from the floor as Moshannon Valley did not put the first points on the board until the 6:15 mark of the first quarter. Bellwood-Antis would go an additional 1:09 seconds to not score their first points until the 5:04 mark of the period when Paul Christner hit a short jump shot from just outside the key.
Bellwood\’s cold shooting continued throughout the first quarter as the Blue Devils were only able to hit three for eleven from the floor. Moshannon Valley shoot better, draining five for eight from the floor to take a 13 – 8 lead at the end of one quarter of play.
It was in the second quarter that the real diversity hit Bellwood. The Blue Devils had fallen behind 13 – 10 and their big man Alan Wertz was flagged for his third personal foul at 6:48 of the second quarter. Head Coach Tim Keech was up calling a time out and provided the Blue Devils with a much needed wake up call as they responded by going on an eleven point run to jump out to a 21 – 13 lead.
The teams played even for the rest of the way with the first half closing with Bellwood hanging on to a 26 – 21 lead.
Bellwood had shot only 42% from the floor for the first half, while Moshannon Valley was able to stay in it by shooting 55% from the floor.
Early on in the third quarter Wertz was whistled for his fourth personal foul at the 6:40 mark. This forced Coach Keech to make a move to his bench. “I feel really good about our overall team depth,” said Coach Keech after the game. Rightly so, as the B-A bench played tough when called upon. Especially Anthony Jenkins. “I thought that Anthony came in and played great for us,” added Keech.
With Bellwood-Antis holding a slim one point lead at 34 – 33 the ability to play under pressure showed again. With Wertz sitting the bench with four fouls, the Blue Devils went on a eight point run keyed by Tyler Elvey\’s three point shot and a lay up and the follow up foul shoot by Christner keying the run. This put B-A up 42 -33.
Wertz entered the game and shortly had picked up his fifth foul with 4:36 left in the game.
Mo- Valley would not go away though, as they hung right in there and clawed their way back within one 42 – 41 with 3:17 remaining.
Elvey came down and then hit a big three pointer to put Bellwood up by four at 45 – 41 with 2:08 left. Blaze Winterstein then calmly sunk two free throws to put the Blue Devils up 47 – 41.
Bellwood-Antis then played ball control and Mo-Valley was forced to foul. B-A kept things under control in the final seconds and walked off of the Black Knight\’s home floor with a 50- 46 win.
Bellwood- Antis now moves to 2-0 on the young season with Moshannon Valley dropping to 1 – 2.
During post game comments Coach Keech said, “this was a great team win. Everyone contributed. Anthony Jenkins came in and played great. We are building confidence and that is what helped us tonight. We need to become a team that runs the floor. We need to get out and go.”
Game Notes: Bellwood-Antis got the win while shooting only 35% from the floor for the game. Tyler Elvey led the Bellwood scoring with 13 points. Moshannon Valley\’s Tom Rowley lead the Black Knights with 23 points. Bellwood won the battle of the boards with 38 rebounds to Mo-Valley\’s 30. Bellwood-Antis also won the Junior Varsity game 51-25 to start the season at 1 – 0. Nate gray led Bellwood with 12 points. Mo-Valley\’s J.V. team dropped to 1 -2. The Blue Devils’ next game will be Monday night at home versus Southern Huntingdon. Branden Henry led Mo-valley with 8 points.. A make up game with Mount Union will be played at Bellwood on Wednesday night.
Bellwood-Antis 50 Mo Valley 46
Bellwood-Antis : Christner 5 1-2, 12, Winterstein 0 2-6, 2, Hatch 3 1-2, 10, Wertz 1 1-3, 3, McCrum 3 0-0, 6, Elvey 4 2-5, 13, B. DeGol 0, 0-0, 0, Miller 0, 0-0, 0, N. DeGol 0, 0-0, 0, Jenkins 2, 0-0, 4. TOTALS 18 7-18 50.
Mo-Valley: Rowley 10 3-5, 23, Neff 2 4-9, 9, Maroni 1 2-5, 4, Holencik 1 1-2, 3, Moyer 3 0-4, 6, Dudurich 0 0-0, 0, Henry 0 1-2, 1. TOTALS 17 11-27 46.
Score by quarters
Bellwood 8 18 8 16 – 50
Mo-Valley 13 8 10 15 – 46
Fouled out: Bellwood, Wertz
Three point goals: Bellwood 6 (Christner, Hatch 3, Elvey 2).
Mo-Valley 1 (Neff).
