The young Bellwood-Antis men\’s squad looked very much like the inexperienced team they are when they had the chance to put Claysburg Kimmel away in the first half Tuesday, but when their lead was threatened in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils played like a team filled with four-year starters.
After shooting 1-7 from the foul line in the first half, Bellwood-Antis made nine of their 12 fourth quarter foul shots to hold off the Bulldogs, who had cut the Blue Devils\’ nine point lead after three quarters to four early in the final quarter.
Bellwood-Antis took control early in the game with a 7-0 run after trailing by two when Anthony Musselman opened the scoring with two free throws for Claysburg-Kimmel.
Alan Wertz pulled down the first of his 11 rebounds and made a layup to put the Blue Devils on the scoreboard, Blaze Winterstein drained a 3-pointer, and Ben Hatch helped Bellwood-Antis take advantage of a Winterstein steal with a layup.
A Claysburg-Kimmel timeout seemed to halt Bellwood-Antis\’ momentum, and Kaleb Fleck hit a 3-pointer near the end of the first quarter to pull the Bulldogs back within two points.
Bellwood-Antis dominated the second quarter defensively, holding Claysburg-Kimmel to only one basket and six points, but the Blue Devils missed six free throws in the quarter while scoring only nine points themselves to make the halftime score of 23-18 closer than it should have been.
“The first thing I mentioned when we got into the locker room was the poor free throw shooting. It is hard to win if you don\’t take advantage of those. Then I spoke with Alan Wertz and told him he just needed to calm down,” Bellwood-Antis Head Coach Tim Keech said.
Whatever was bothering Wertz in the first half was cured by Keech\’s halftime talk. Wertz opened the second half with two baskets to stretch Bellwood-Antis\’ lead to 27-18, and he scored 10 of his 12 points after intermission.
Trailing 34-25 heading into the final quarter, Claysburg-Kimmel mounted a 6-1 run that was capped off by Fleck\’s second 3-pointer of the game to pull the Bulldogs within four points, but Hatch, a sophomore, showed the poise of a senior knocking down a jump shot to stretch the lead back to six.
Winterstein then hit a 3-pointer that took the wind out of Claysburg-Kimmel\’s sails and gave the Blue Devils a 40-31 advantage.
Bellwood-Antis made eight free throws in the final 2:11 to lock up the 51-43 victory.
Hatch led all scorers with 16 points, and Wertz and Winterstein both contributed 12 of their own. Paul Christner added 8 points with a 3-pointer.
“People can\’t key on a certain person and shut us down. That is the asset of having all our starters contribute equally, and this game was another confidence builder,” Keech said.
Although he got great offensive performances from his starters, Keech got no points from the bench one night after having only two points off the pine.
“It is a concern, but as long as they come off the bench to play defense and play their role things will be okay. Bruno DeGol did a great job playing defense and not making mistakes in his first varsity action,” Keech said.
Bellwood-Antis will play again Friday when they travel to Moshannon Valley.
Junior Varsity
Bellwood-Antis got major contributions from a variety of players in their 48-18 romp over Claysburg-Kimmel in junior varsity action. Alan Wertz and Bruno DeGol each scored 10 points, while Tyler Elvey and Eric McCrum added eight each. Kaleb Fleck scored eight points for the Bulldogs in a losing effort.
Bellwood-Antis 51 Claysburg-Kimmel 43
CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL – Nale 2 0-0 4, Iachini 1 0-1 2, A. Musselman 1 2-2 4, Fleck 4 3-6 13, DeHoff 3 3-4 9, Weyandt 4 1-3 9, Sybert 0 2-2 2, Burkett 0 0-0 0, M. Musselman 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 11-18 43
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Hatch 7 2-4 16, Winterstein 4 1-2 12, Seidel 1 1-3 3, Christner 2 3-4 8, Wertz 4 4-6 12, Boone 0 0-2 0, McCrum 0 0-0 0, Elvey 0 0-0 0, DeGol 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 11-21 51.
Score by Quarters
Claysburg-Kimmel 12 6 7 18 – 43
Bellwood-Antis 14 9 11 17 – 51
Three-point goals: Claysburg-Kimmel 2. (Fleck 2). Bellwood-Antis 4. (Winterstein 3, Christner 1).
