Every time Bellwood-Antis and Moshannon Valley get together it is a close battle. Both games this year were decided by just a single point. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, Mo Valley has emerged both times with the win. After taking the first game at Moshannon Valley 44-43, the Black knights edged Bellwood-Antis again on Friday night, 46-45.
This game featured a couple of paradoxes that killed the Blue Devils. Both concerned rebounds. Conventional wisdom says that if you outrebound your opponent you should have a decent chance to defeat your foe. Bellwood-Antis had a big 35-17 advantage on the boards Friday night against the Knights. However, here is where it starts to go astray. First, as B-A coach Tim Keech pointed out. Bellwood-Antis too often got several rebounds in a sequence, but still ended up not putting the ball in the basket. Secondly, when Moshannon Valley missed several free throws, with inside position on the lines, the Blue Devils failed to get the ball. The Knights were able to wriggle in and get the ball and keep their offense alive, when the ball should have been going downcourt to the Bellwood-Antis basket.
There was no better example than with seven seconds left in the game, The Blue Devils had to foul for a chance to get the ball, down 46-45. The Knights’ Ryan Gmerek went to the line to shoot a one-and-one. Gmerek missed the first shot, but somehow Moshannon Valley managed to come up with the basketball. Bellwood-Antis grabbed the ball to get a tie-up, but the possession arrow gave Moshannon Valley the ball. Had B-A gotten the rebound, they would have had a chance to bring the ball down in time to set up a play for the final shot. Paul Greiner made an incredible steal and got the ball down court to Evan Hughes who put up a desperation shot that was short of the mark as the game ended.
Bellwood-Antis opened the scoring to take an early lead on Aaron Bell’s only basket of the game and a foul shot by Greiner, Mo Valley came right back to take a 4-3 lead and the lead changed hands several times before a bucket and free throw by Matt Mills, two foul shots by Luke Martin and one by Gmerek gave the Knights a 12-7 advantage with 1:21 left in the quarter. Brandon Boone gave the Blue Devils a lift with two steals and fastbreak buckets, one at the end of the first period to draw B-A up to a three-point deficit at the end of the quarter, 12-9, and then a steal and breakaway for a basket and foul shot to draw the Blue Devils to within 17-15 early in the second period.
Blaze Winterstein began a Bellwood-Antis 6-0 run canning a free throw, after earlier notching a trey to keep B-A close at 19-18. Mike Blazier, who was one of several players singled out by Keech for praise, grabbed a rebound and the resulting putback made it a two-point ballgame. Boone hit two of four free throws to tie the game at 23-23 with 0:47 to go in the half.
Greiner put in a basket to end the half, following a steal and basket by Michael Baughman and two fouls shots by Mills to give Moshannon Valley a 27-25 halftime advantage.
After Mills sunk a two-pointer to begin the third period, Bellwood-Antis went on an 11-2 run to take the biggest lead for either team, 36-31. Blazier added another putback, Paul Christner and Winterstein pumped in treys and Blazier added a free throw. The quarter ended however with Mo Valley taking their turn to score seven points in a row and maintain a 39-36 lead at the end of three quarters.
Blazier began the final stanza with one of two from the foul line and Winterstein buried his third trey of the contest to get the Blue Devils to within one 41-40.
Baughman converted two more steals into points, one on a basket and another with a pair of free throws and Martin, who quarterbacked the Knights football team, scored an old-fashioned three points- a basket and foul shot to push the Knights into a 46-40 lead with 2:21 left.
Greiner hit four straight foul shots and after two B-A timeouts added another to close the score to 46-45 and set the stage for the final seven seconds.
“It was the same thing up there,” said coach Keech. “We lost by one point up there, I think we lost 44-43 and we loss here 46-45, so it’s a one point game. The bottom line came down, that’s a game we should win. That team is not better than us. That team should not have beaten us twice this year. We just can’t make free throws. It’s just a matter of getting better in practice, quit goofing around, concentrate on getting what we are doing and getting our form down and stepping up and making them. Until that happens, we are going to continue to lose games like this. There is absolutely no excuse for shooting fouls like that. We are a better team than that.”
Moshannon Valley 46 Bellwood-Antis 45
Moshannon Valley – Baughman 3 2-2 8, Mills 2 5-5 9, Kephart 0 0-0 0, Wulderk 4 1-1 10, Martin 5 6-8 16, Gmerek 0 1-3 1, Pleshonko 0 0-0 0, Gates 1 0-2 2. TOTALS 15 15-21 46.
Bellwood-Antis – Bell 1 0-2 2, Greiner 3 6-8 13, Blazier 3 2-4 8, Christner 2 0-0 5, Edmiston 0 0-0 0, Seidel 0 0-0 0, Boone 2 3-5 7, DelGrosso 0 0-2 0, Winterstein 3 1-2 10, Hughes 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 14 12-23 45.
Score by Quarters
Moshannon Valley 12 15 12 7 – 46.
Bellwood-Antis 9 16 11 9 – 45.
