The Bellwood-Antis boys basketball team finally got to start the 2006 basketball season with only twenty days remaining in the year. The first week\’s basketball games were all canceled, as the basketball team was supporting the Bellwood football team. The Blue Devil football team went to the Eastern Finals. Since the football season ended late this past Friday evening for Bellwood, that left only Saturday for some of the members of the football team to join in the basketball drills.
Bellwood head basketball coach Tim Keech mentioned this very fact after the basketball team put their first win in the column last evening at the Bellwood-Antis High School gym with a tough 45-44 victory over visiting Claysburg-Kimmel.
“We played with three sophomores and a freshman tonight as most of our football players still have not been able to join the team for workouts. The only exception was Alan Wertz. Allan came to Saturday’s workout for some conditioning and shoot around. I respect his effort,” said Keech.
The limited time in the gym and off the football field showed offensively as Wertz went one for eleven from the field. Where he played big was in rebounding with a team-high ten. “Once Alan has some time to work on the court he will be a real asset,” Keech added.
The opening period was an up and down quarter as the two teams traded the lead until Tyler Elvey hit two three point shots in a row to put the Blue Devils up 12-9 at the end of the first period.
The second quarter was played very much the same way with Bellwood-Antis pressing more and using a pressure defense. Bellwood was getting one shot only as Claysburg-Kimmel team outrebounded the Blue Devils nineteen to nine in the first half. Bellwood’s three point shooting, especially by Tyler Elvey, kept the Blue Devils in the game when it looked as though Claysburg was in a position to pull away. Bellwood was five for six from three point range and hit four of five from the line. Meanwhile Bellwood\’s pressure defense was called for only one foul the entire first half. Claysburg went zero-or-one from the foul line as both teams battled to a 21-21 halftime deadlock.
The third period showed Claysburg trying to slow the pace and Bellwood-Antis trying to push the ball up and down the court. Both teams missed numerous shots and committed numerous turnovers throughout the third period. As the period ended, Claysburg was hanging on to a slim two point lead at 32-30 going into the fourth quarter.
Claysburg\’s defensive game plan for the fourth quarter was obvious. Keep the ball away from Elvey so he couldn’t hurt them anymore with his deadly three point shooting. The teams went up and down the court trading turnovers. Elvey managed to get open at 7:15 of the fourth period and drained yet another three pointer, his fifth of the night, to put Bellwood up 33-32. The teams again traded several turnovers, as they raced up and down the court until Elvey hit his sixth three point bucket at 5:43 left in the fourth to put Bellwood up 36-32.
The B-A defense came up big as a blocked shot set the offense off and running. Ben Hatch hit his second consecutive jumper after scoring only seconds before to give Bellwood-Antis a four point swing in a matter of fifteen seconds. The Blue Devils were now up 40-34 with only 3:33 left in the game.
Claysburg refused to roll over, roaring back on Kaleb Fleck’s two three point baskets in a roll to deadlock the score once again at 40-40 with 2:25 remaining.
Bellwood-Antis brought the ball up and set up their offense. Claysburg was obviously pressing to keep Elvey from being able to get off a shot so the Blue Devils had Paul Christner launch a three pointer that found nothing but net to put Bellwood back up 43-40.
Claysburg came right back down the court and when Roman Weyant hit a short jumper it brought Claysburg within one at 43-42 with 1:39 showing on the clock. Bellwood-Antis pushed the ball down court, but a short jump shot by Wertz was missed. Claysburg\’s Fleck pulled down the rebound and the Bulldogs were a bucket away from taking the lead with less than a minute left.
Claysburg\’s Roman Weyant missed a jump shot, but Devin Weyandt was right their to put up an uncontested layup to put the Bulldogs up 44-43 with just :50 seconds left.
“That could have been bad for us there,” Keech said of the easy layup. “I thought that our kids showed character coming back down from giving up that basket.”
Bellwood set up their offense and moved around the outside setting up for that last shot. With just :25 seconds left Bellwood\’s Paul Christner was able to get a step on the Claysburg defender and drive the lane for a layup that gave the Blue Devils a 45-44 lead.
Claysburg came down court fast for a possible game winning shot but Christner came up big, tipping a pass under the basket out of bounds with only :10 ticks on the clock. Claysburg inbounded the ball and was able to get off another shot. The shot was off the mark and tipped out of bounds by Bellwood-Antis, giving Claysburg life with just :03 seconds in the game. Claysburg inbounded and threw up a desperation shot that was no good as the horn sounded giving Bellwood their first win of the year.
When asked to sum up the victory during a postgame interview Coach Keech was first to admit, “the three point shooting kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win. We made mistakes tonight, but they were hustle mistakes. I thought we played hard and with heart tonight. We played with three sophomores and called up a ninth grader. It is a good win.”
Game Notes: Tyler Elvey led Bellwood-Antis with 20 points….Alan Wertz pulled down a team high 10 rebounds for the Blue Devils….Claysburg\’s Kaleb Fleck had a game high 21 points and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds….Bellwood-Antis shot 6-7 from the foul line while Claysburg only had one foul shot for the entire game and went 0-1 from the charity line….Bellwood-Antis is now 1-0 for the season and Claysburg slips to 2-4…..There was no Junior Varsity game….Bellwood-Antis travels to take on Moshannon Valley, at Houtzdale, on Friday evening.
Bellwood-Antis 45 Claysburg-Kimmel 44
Score by quarters
Claysburg-Kimmel 9 12 11 12 – 44
Bellwood-Antis 12 9 9 15 – 45
Claysburg-Kimmel: Claycomb 1 0-0 2, Fleck 8 0-1 21, D. Weyandt 1 0-0 2, R. Weyant 4 0-0 8, S. Burkett 3 0-0 6, T. Kittle 1 0-0 2, R. Brown 1 0-0 3
Bellwood-Antis: Christner 3 0-0 7, Hatch 4 0-0 10, Wertz 1 0-0 2, McCrum 1 4-4 6, Elvey 6 2-3 20, Mattern, 0 0 0-0, 0, Austin 0 0-0 0
Three Point goals: Claysburg: (Fleck 5, Brown 1)
Bellwood-Antis: 9 (Christner 1, Hatch 2, Elvey 6
