Steph Hatch and Lauren Carter both scored double-doubles for Bellwood-Antis at Juniata Valley on Saturday night, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Lady Hornets, who are fighting for the first cycle championship of the Juniata Valley League. The Lady Hornets are assured of a least a tie, depending on the winner of the Claysburg-Kimmel/West Branch game this week. A West Branch win would give Valley the top spot by themselves, a Claysburg win would mean Claysburg and Juniata Valley share first place and necessitate a one-game playoff.
Desiree Reed scored 15 points and pulled down 15 rebounds to lead Juniata Valley (13-2 overall, 8-1 JVL first cycle) past Bellwood-Antis 43-40.
In a game where the officiating angered many in the stands, Juniata Valley went to the charity stripe 23 times, while draining 10 of those shots. Bellwood-Antis was three of five from the line, shooting 18 fewer times and converting seven less in a game decided by three points.
The Lady Hornets built up an early 9-4 lead midway through the opening quarter in what would be the largest margin for either team.
A basket and free throw by Jenna Ralston, two straight buckets by Carter, the second on a beautiful assist from Hatch, and a fast break bucket by Jamie Smith, off a blocked shot from Carter, jumped the Lady Blue Devils into a 13-11 advantage after one quarter.
Juniata Valley came right back to double the Blue Devils total in the second quarter 10-5 to lead 21-18 at the half. Abby Mowrer popped in a basket to knot the score early, then punctuated the quarter with another basket to give her teammates a three-point lead at the end of two quarters.
After Carter gave Bellwood-Antis 15-13 and 16-15 leads with a basket and a foul shot, Valley scored the final six points of the half, on two baskets by Britt Borst and the final field goal by Mowrer.
B-A stepped it up a notch to outscore the Lady Hornets 13-8 in the third stanza to take a slim 31-29 lead. Carter cut the lead to 21-20 at the start of the quarter and Hatch drilled a pair of treys and added another two-point field goal.
In the all-important fourth quarter, Mowrer knocked down two buckets and a trey by Reed pulled Juniata Valley into a 37-35 lead. Ralston hit a bucket and Jamie Smith added a trey for the Lady Blue Devils with time running out, but Juniata Valley made six free throws in the 2:26 to insure the win.
“That was probably our best team effort,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Nick Lovrich. “We didn’t have any lapses where we only scored two points for a quarter. We played a full game and just came up a little short. The effort was there. Everybody hit the boards hard, especially Steph and Lauren, who both had double-doubles again. It’s the little things, the boxing out so they can pull down rebounds. This is one of the first games that the opponents had just as much height as we did and we fared real well against their big girls. Turnover-wise, it was pretty even. It was a physical game, there was a lot of scrapping going on. Our kids didn’t back down. We just had a couple more turnovers (21-18) than they did. If you look at the score, that probably made the difference.”
Hatch led the Lady Blue Devils with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Carter added 11 points and a game-high 16 rebounds. Smith scored eight points and Ralston contributed seven points for B-A (6-8) travel to Moshannon Valley tonight to play the Lady Damsels. Game time for the junior varsity will be 6 p.m. and 7:30 for the varsity contest.
Brittany Web scored seven points for the Lady Blue Devil jayvees, who dropped a 43-13 decision to Juniata Valley in the preliminary game.
Marissa Snyder led the Hornets with nine points.
Juniata Valley 43 Bellwood-Antis 40
Bellwood-Antis – Claar 1 0-0 2, Hatch 5 0-0 12, Ralston 3 1-1 7, Carter 5 1-2 11, Smith 3 1-2 8, Sinisi 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 17 3-5 40.
Juniata Valley – McDowell 1 2-4 4, Mowrer 4 2-4 11, Lane 0 5-10 5, Reed 6 2-4 15, Gildea 1 0-1 2, Borst 3 0-0 6, Howe 0 0-0 0, Feagley 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 10-23 43.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 13 5 13 9 – 40
Juniata Valley 11 10 8 12 – 43
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 3 (Hatch 2, Smith 1).
Juniata Valley 2 Mowrer 1, Reed 1)
