If the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils could take back everything that went wrong this season, they’d be undefeated. Compared to last year’s 5-19 record, this year’s 9-15 record was a major improvement, nearly doubling the total for head coach Tim Keech. This year’s squad had the nasty taste of a five-win season in their mouths and did everything they could every game to get that taste out of their mouths.
This year’s team consisted of eight seniors with six of them contributing every night. Newcomers Richard Wood and Aaron Gonzales saw limited time, but when they did get to see some action, they both made the most of whatever time they got.
The bottom line for Bellwood-Antis in 2004-2005 is drawn by a telling set of stats that confronts the team with the truth. That is, when they were on, they won, when they weren’t, they ldidn’t.
That much was evident when most of the games that B-A lost, were because of long scoring droughts of five minutes or more that allowed their opponent either to pull away or catch up and go on to win the game. One particular game, Bellwood-Antis was up at halftime, but only scored two points in the third quarter, and ended up losing that game.
Most of the time, each of those games with long scoring droughts resulted in a Blue Devil loss. Coach Keech is definitely looking to take the momentum gained from this year and improve his team’s scoring ability to put together more wins for next season.
Although the team improved it’s record, Coach Keech suffered his second consecutive season under the .500 winning percentage.
Bellwood-Antis did hit a high mark late in the race for the playoff’s winning a season high four games in a row, and contending for the top spot in the Juniata Valley League, for the second cycle. The brief high was quickly followed by a three game losing streak that virtually put them out of the JVL playoff hunt and a chance to upset the league and win the second cycle.
Bellwood-Antis was led by the senior trio of Paul Greiner, Aaron Bell, and Tyler McClellan. These three players put together 25-35 points per game combined. Not only did these three put together more than a few solid games this year. Other senior leaders such as Mike Blazier, who would grab key rebounds when the team needed him to, Adam DeArmitt would cash in big shots when the main scorers were being shut down, sophomore Blaze Winterstein would step in and score in double digits when the team needed another person to reach double figures in the score book. Sophomore Paul Christner could make three pointers almost on command when the team needed to get back into the game. Tony DelGrosso would take the role of Blazier, when Mike needed a breather, as Tony would get offensive rebounds and convert them into offensive points. Brandon Boone and L.J. Seidel, would come in and give solid production when the starters needed a break.
No one gave more offensive production this year than Paul Greiner. Paul lead this year’s team with 324 total points which averages out to 13.5 points a game. Greiner shot 48% from the field to lead the team. Paul also grabbed a whopping 163 rebounds, which also lead the team. 73 of the 163 were offensive rebounds, and 90 of them were defensive. Paul also shot 71% from the foul line Again each of those stats lead the team. Paul was a starter and a team captain for this years squad.
This year’s leader in sharing was Tyler McClellan. Tyler lead the team in assists, dishing out the ball for scores 56 times this season. Tyler was also the starting point guard for Coach Keech this year, and it’s kind of expected to lead the team in assists when you run the offense.
Aaron Bell, or “AB” as his teammates call him, proved to be the best pick pocket on this year’s squad. Aaron picked the pockets of opposing offensive players 47 times this season. Most of those steals lead to Aaron Bell lay-ups and easy points for his team. Aaron, who led the team with a 78% mark from the foul line, was also a starter this year.
All three of these team leaders will be greatly missed by fans, teammates, and coaches, as well as the entire senior class on the team this season. All the seniors this year gave a great effort to make this team better, and have created the path for the underclassmen to follow to improve the record of the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils even more.
The entire team shot 39% on the year while their opponents shot 44%. B-A also shot 65% from the foul line. Coach Keech would have liked to see that at about 77% to 80%, but that’s something he can work with to improve on next season. B-A got out rebounded by their opponents 636 to 599, but Bellwood did have more total offensive rebounds than their opponents. Although the percentages weren’t close, the total points scored were quite close. Bellwood was only outscored by opponents 1,245 to 1,222. A slim 23 points doesn’t seem like much, but when you don’t score more than your opponent, you don’t win games.
Congratulations to this year’s seniors on a great year, and thanks for the great entertainment you gave every game. Coach Tim Keech is looking forward to getting back in the gym this summer with his returning players to make another run at getting back to the District Title game.
