The Bellwood-Antis girls traveled to Wingate to play Bald Eagle Area in their final regular season game before participating in the District VI-AA playoffs on Monday night.
The Lady Blue Devils came out cold in each of the first three quarters, then finally caught fire in the fourth quarter, nearly pulling a victory out, before succumbing 50-48 to the host Eagles.
“I don’t know what it was,” Bellwood-Antis coach Nick Lovrich tried to explain. “We just didn’t seem like we were ready to play in the beginning. That back to haunt us. When you only score 12 points in the first half and then you go and score 36 (in the second half), that just kind of shows you weren’t ready to play basketball.”
The Lady Blue Devils were outrebounded 12-2 in a first quarter in which Bald Eagle Area took a 13-6 scoring margin and committed 22 turnovers in the game, which did not exactly please Lovrich. “Turnovers really hurt us. They were in a zone and we had a lot of unforced errors.”
Senior Steph Hatch, who passed the 1,000-point mark last week, was the only Bellwood-Antis girl to crack the scoring column in the opening quarter hitting all six points, including back-to-back shots to give B-A a 4-2 lead, the second a steal and fastbreak goal. Bald Eagle scored twice to take the lead, when Hatch pumped in a basket from just inside the three-point line to retie the game, but the Lady Eagles closed out the period with seven straight points to lead 13-6 after one quarter.
The BEA girls added a foul shot and bucket to complete a 10-0 run that gave Bald Eagle a 10-point advantage 16-6. The Bellwood-Antis girls started to show some life, finishing the first half with a 6-2 spurt. Lauren Carter hit consecutive baskets and Jenna Ralston scored the final bucket of the half to close the B-A girls to within six, 18-12.
Both teams began to heat up the gym for the sparse crowd in the second half. After scoring just 30 points between the two schools in the opening half, the teams combined for 35 points in the third quarter and 33 more in the final quarter.
Tierney Campbell opened the third quarter for Bald Eagle with a trey and a regular basket and Courtney Garner, who led all scorers for the night with 21 points, added a bucket and three free throws to key a 10-5 streak that pushed the BEA lead out to 11 points, 28-17. The two teams then exchanged baskets for the rest of the quarter with Bald Eagle Area emerging with a 38-27 lead after three quarters. A trey by Courtney Garner and basket by Brittany Kilmer had given BEA their largest lead of the game, 36-21, but Carter hit a short jumper and Jenna Ralston popped in a three-pointer as the quarter ended to get the deficit back to 11.
The Lady Blue Devils came out red hot in the fourth quarter. Hatch, who hadn’t scored since the 1:45 mark of the first quarter, hit two quick ones in a row and then stole the ball and hit Carter with a beautiful assist which Carter converted into a basket to cut the Bald Eagle lead to six, 39-33.
The Lady Eagles tried to build their advantage back up, with Campbell hitting one and Courtney Garner two straight baskets to push the lead to 45-33.
Bellwood-Antis refused to go away however. A Carter jumper cut the lead to 10, before Jamie Smith bombed in a trey and added a two-point basket and Ralston buried her second three-pointer to slice the BEA lead to 45-43. Carter traded a basket for an Amanda Reese free throw to cut the lead to a single digit 46-45, with 1:15 remaining in the game. What had been a laugher for most of the game, was quite suddenly a thriller.
C. Garner hit two of four foul shots to give the Lady Eagles a 48-45 lead, but with 17.5 seconds to play, Hatch buried a long trey to tie the game, 48-48.
On the following possession, Megan Garner was fouled and sank both free throws for a 50-48 BEA lead.
Bellwood-Antis had two more chances, but couldn’t score, with the last try set up by a Bald eagle traveling violation under the Blue Devils’ basket with 3.1 seconds to go. One last try hit the side of the backboard and Bald Eagle Area survived to win by two.
Carter and Hatch led the way for the Lady Blue Devils. Carter scored 20 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, while Hatch scored 15 points, pulled down 10 boards and had six assists and five steals in a losing effort. Jenna Ralston added eight points and Jamie Smith had five.
Campbell backed up Courtney Garner’s 21 points with 10 of her own for BEA.
“For us to compete in the playoffs, we need to get a little more contributions from some more people,” said Lovrich. “A lot of it, comes from decision-making. If we don’t turn the ball over, maybe we get a couple more shots.”
The Bellwood-Antis girls (9-15) will open their District VI-AA playoff bid on Monday night against Bishop Guilfoyle at 6 p.m. at the Hollidaysburg Senior High School. BG is 21-3 with a 6:30 p.m. game tonight against Lewistown (22-2) for the MAC Division II first cycle championship, at Bald Eagle Area High School.
Junior Varsity
The junior varsity contest was won by Bald Eagle Area 36-20.
Chelsea Young led the Lady Blue Devil junior varsity with nine points. Brittany Webb added six points and Shalee Hunter had five points and 11 rebounds.
Tiffany McCloskey led Bald Eagle with 13 points.
Bald Eagle Area 50 Bellwood-Antis 48
Bellwood-Antis – Hatch 7 0-1 15, Ralston 3 0-0 8, Sinisi 0 0-0 0, Carter 8 4-5 20, Smith 2 0-4 5, Claar 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 4-10 48.
Bald Eagle Area – M Garner 2 2-3 6, Campbell 4 0-0 10, C. Garner 8 4-7 21, Reese 0 4-8 4, Kilmer 2 1-3 5, Fisher 1 0-0 2, Weaver 1 0-0 2, Giedric 0 0-0 0, Shaw 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 11-21 50.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 6 6 15 21 – 48.
Bald Eagle Area 13 5 20 12 – 50.
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 4 (Ralston 2, Hatch 1, Smith 1).
Bale Eagle Area 3 (Campbell 2, C. Garner 1).
