Bellwood-Antis came into their game with the Penns Valley Rams posting a record of 5-6 and were riding a modest two game winning streak. Tonight’s game was the first conference game of the second cycle in the Juniata Valley League. B-A’s record for the first cycle was 5-3 in the Juniata Valley League.
B-A was also looking to pass last year’s win total with a victory tonight.
This started off a little rough for the Blue Devils committing four first quarter turnovers, which allowed the Rams to jump out on top early.
Zac Lavoie converted on a fast break with 2:50 left in the quarter to put Penns Valley up 6-2. Aaron Bell came back for B-A with a nice lefty hook shot in the lane to pull the Devils back within two points with 1:37 to go. The Rams would get three more points before time ran out to make the score after one period of play, 9-4 in favor of Penns Valley.
Tyler McClellan helped B-A keep it close with a drive to the basket early in the second quarter. He put up a tough shot among four defenders under the basket. McClellan’s basket made it 11-6 with 6:53 left until halftime. McClellan would then drop in a pair of free throws about a minute later to pull B-A within two, 11-9 with 5:59 until the half. Chris Edmiston dialed long distance to get his only basket of the game to keep it a one point game, 13-12 with 5:32 left.
Bellwood and Penns Valley would battle in a close contest through out the entire game. Penns Valley’s biggest lead was only six points, and Bellwood’s biggest lead was only seven points. The Rams took their lead into the locker room with them at the half leading 21-16.
Paul Greiner would step up in the second half and drop in a pair of free throws. Greiner only had two points at the half, but finished tied for game high with 17. Aaron Bell would drop in his only three of the night to pull B-A within three points, 24-21 with 4:34 to go in the third. B-A would pull within one, but Curtis Shulman put in a tough bank shot to put Penns Valley back up by three, 26-23 with 3:24 to go.
Aaron Bell would get a rebound and take it coast to coast to make the score, 28-25 with 2:23 left in the quarter. Paul Greiner showed once again why he’s a leader on this team, stepping up with a man in his face, from about three feet behind the three point line and banked in the game tying three pointer with 1:11 to go before the fourth.
Penns Valley would regain the lead before the buzzer to take a slim two point lead going into the final period of play, 30-28.
Paul Greiner scored back to back baskets for Bellwood-Antis to help them get their first lead of the night 32-30 with 5:18 left in the game. B-A would get up by four, but Zac Lavoie pulled the Rams back within two, 34-32 with 4:22 left. Penns Valley would retake the lead with 3:22 left when Lavoie added three more points to make the score 35-34.
Blaze Winterstein took it hard to the hole, got the basket and the foul shot to put B-A back up by two, 37-35 with 3:11 to go in the game. Blaze, after the score was tied up again, would again take it strong to the hole, this time there was no foul, but he still dropped in the tough two.
Tyler McClellan had a drive of his own to put B-A up 43-37 with a little over a minute to go. Lavoie hit a deep three pointer with 50 seconds left to pull the Rams within three, 43-40. Paul Greiner and Blaze Winterstein helped B-A hang on to their lead and pull away late to in their third game in a row 47-43.
This is Bellwood’s third win in a row and third win in 2005. At this pace B-A will have more wins in the second half of the season than all of last year.
Tonight’s win came against one of the power houses of the Juniata Valley League.
“We talked about this seven game stretch and just taking them one at a time,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach Tim Keech. “Hopefully this can act as a spring board for us. This is my fourth year here as head coach and I’ve never beaten Penns Valley. We knew that if we came out and played hard, we could be in striking distance.”
At the end of the first quarter, B-A’s offense only mustarded up four points. You would have never guessed that Bellwood-Antis would have put up ten times that amount by the end of the game.
“We have a hard time simulating that kind of tough man-to-man defense,” Keech added. “I thought we got good shots, but we rushed them, or maybe because the man-to-man defense made us rush things. I thought we’d be fine, whether or not we’d get to 50 points, I didn’t know, but I thought we could keep Penns Valley within range.”
The Bellwood JV team fought out a close one as well. Being down 22-19 after three quarters of play, the Devils would out score the Rams 14-5 in the fourth quarter to win 33-27.
Blaze Winterstein lead the charge with 16 points, and Paul Christner chipped in 12.
Bellwood-Antis 47 Penns Valley 43
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – McClellan 3 2-2 8, Bell 4 1-1 10, Greiner 6 4-4 17, Christner 0 1-2 1, Edmiston 1 0-1 3, Winterstein 2 4-5 8. TOTALS 16 12-15 47.
PENNS VALLEY – Myer 2 2-2 6, Homan 1 0-0 3, Shulman 3 0-0 7, Brown 3 0-2 6, Lavoie 7 2-4 17, Williams 2 0-0 4. TOTALS 18 4-8 43.
Score by Quarter
Bellwood-Antis 4 12 12 19 – 47
Penns Valley 9 12 9 13 – 43
Three point goals: Penns Valley 3 (Homan, Shulman, Lavoie).
Bellwood-Antis 3 (Bell, Greiner, Edmiston).
