The Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils came into their game with the Southern Huntingdon Rockets with a record of 7-11 needing to win out the rest of the season to go to the playoffs. In the last meeting between these two teams, the Blue Devils came out with a huge 29 point win. B-A was looking to sweep the season series with the Rockets.
Bellwood jumped out early in the game going up 6-0 before Southern Huntingdon scored their first basket. The Rockets would comeback from the six point deficit and make it a two point game before the quarter was over. Paul Christner and Brandon Boone lead B-A with four points each in the first period of play. After the quarter was over, B-A held on to a slim 12-10 lead.
Chris Edmiston scored early in the second quarter and that would turn out to be B-A’s only basket of the period. Southern Huntingdon jumped on the back’s of Fred Schnarrs and Garrett Speck, going on a 15-0 run to end the first half of play. Sparking the run were six turnover’s in a row by the B-A offense. The score at the end of the first half was 25-14 in favor of the Rockets. Southern Huntingdon would not trail the rest of the game.
The third quarter started just as the second quarter ended, with the Rockets scoring again to make their run now 17-0. Paul Greiner finally ended the ten minute drought and put in a well needed basket. Greiner’s play sparked a 12-2 run for Bellwood and got the Devils right back into the game. Brandon Boone hit two big three-pointers in B-A’s 12-2 run to give the few B-A fans at the away game some life and something to cheer about. B-A would get it to within three points, but would be down by five when the quarter was over, 31-26.
The final period of play was chalk full of Southern Huntingdon free throws. The Rockets opened up fourth quarter scoring with a pair of foul shots. Paul Christner dropped in a three ball to make the score 33-29 with 5:33 left to play in the game. Southern Huntingdon would then go on a 7-2 run capped off by Fred Scharrs’ basket plus the foul shot. B-A would find themselves down by nine, 42-33, with 1:43 left to go and would have to start fouling to have a chance for the win. Clutch free throws by Matt Baer and Clair Trexler would prevent B-A from having a chance to make the comeback. Southern Huntingdon would hold on for the win and knock B-A out of the playoffs with the score being 47-34.
Coach Keech looked and sounded very disappointed that his team could not come up with the win last night.
“I think more than anything, I was just disappointed with our mental set tonight. I don’t think we were ready to play.”
The second quarter was a killer for B-A’s chances for a win. Only scoring two points and Southern Huntingdon scoring 15 put a seal on Bellwood’s chances for the playoffs.
“When they out scored us by 13, we were in trouble,” said Keech, “but we came out in the third quarter and even with come bad things happening, we cut into the lead.”
Bellwood’s record dropped to 7-12 with only four games remaining in their season. Bellwood’s next game will be Friday evening at home against Mo Valley. The last meeting between the two teams the Knights came out on top in a thriller, 44-43.
Southern Huntingdon 47 Bellwood-Antis 34
SOUTHERN HUNTINGDON – Trexler 1 6-8 8, Neuder 4 0-0 8, Speck 6 2-4 14, Schnarrs 4 3-4 11, Baer 2 2-2 6. TOTALS 17 13-18 47.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Bell 2 0-0 4, Greiner 3 1-2 7, Blazier 1 0-2 2, Christner 3 0-0 7, Boone 4 0-0 10, Edmiston 1 0-0 2, DelGrosso 1 0-0 2, Winterstein 0 0-2 0. TOTALS 15 1-6 34.
Score by Quarter
Southern Huntingdon 10 15 6 16 – 47
Bellwood-Antis 12 2 12 8 – 34
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 3 (Boone 2, Christner).
