The Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils came into their game with the Williamsburg Blue Pirates with a record of 7-10, at the Bellwood-Antis High School gymnasium on Tuesday evening, and coming off a four game losing streak.
“After coming off last week, we had a good practice on Monday,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Tim Keech. “I expected the guys to play well. More than anything, we just needed to get our bearings back and back on our feet after four tough games last week.”
The Blue Devils were looking to snap that streak, and they did a great job of that last night. Bellwood-Antis used a balanced offense and a big defense that held the Blue Pirates under 40 points to halt their losing streak with a 57-34 triumph.
Bellwood-Antis jumped out of the gate very quickly going on a 7-0 run to start off the game. Bellwood kept up the offensive power and outscored Williamsburg 15-5 in the first quarter.
Paul Greiner scored nine out of his 14 in the first quarter which really helped B-A jump out to a great start.
“We played great on defense tonight,” said Keech. “We held them to nine points until there was about a-minute-and-a-half left in the first half. We rebounded about as well as we have all year. When we can hold our opponents to one shot, that is a great help. A lot of kids contributed tonight. Mike Blazier’s contributions don’t show much in the boxscore, but he rebounded extremely well and got the ball out to our guards to get the ball down the floor. When he comes mentally ready to play, we are most successful.”
Williamsburg wasn’t able to break the double digit mark untill about 1:25 to go in the first half of play.
The Blue Devils, on the other hand, scored 16 more points in the second quarter.
The third quarter was a different story for Bellwood-Antis as Williamsburg would finally have the advantage scoring-wise, in the books, but Bellwood-Antis was able to get out of the quarter still having a very comfortable lead heading into the final period of play.
Aaron Bell and Paul Greiner helped Bellwood-Antis put the game completly out of reach for the Blue Pirates to help the Bellwood boys snap a four game skid, winning big 57-34.
“Our attitude determines what the guys want to do. Tonight they let their actions do the talking.”
Senior Aaron Bell led the charge for the Blue Devils with 16, and Greiner was right behind him adding 14 big points.
For Bellwood-Antis (8-10), the next game is on the road at West Branch, which won the first cycle of league play in the Juniata Valley League on Friday night.
Tip-off times for the Bellwood-Antis/West Branch game will be 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Junior Varsity
The Bellwood-Antis junior varsity team had a little trouble with Williamsburg tonight, but hung on for a victory.
The final score in that game was 54-49 with Blaze Winterstein dropping in an amazing 19 points.
