Williamsburg’s Morgan Tate left the Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devils playing catch-up for the entire game after her 16 first-quarter points led to an 18-5 Lady Blue Pirate lead after the quarter.
Jenna Ralston gave Bellwood-Antis a short-lived lead when she began the game with a jump shot. Kayla Harker answered with a layup, and Tate made back-to-back baskets to make the score 6-2.
Jamie Smith made a jump shot to pull the Lady Blue Devils within two, but Tate nailed consecutive three-pointers to stretch their lead to eight.
Lauren Carter scored her only point of the first quarter on a free throw before Tate finished off her amazing quarter with two more three-pointers.
After the Lady Blue Pirates scored the first four points of the second quarter to stretch the lead to 17, Bellwood-Antis began a run of their own.
Allison Sinisi started things off with a layup, and after Tate made a free throw, Carter made two baskets.
Smith added two free throws, and Bellwood-Antis found themselves down by 10 with 3:40 left in the quarter.
However, as they would the entire game, Williamsburg had an answer for the Lady Blue Devils’ run.
Amber Severa made the first two of her nine free throws in the game and Tate added a jump shot. Stephanie Hatch made a three-pointer before a Sinisi free throw that cut the lead back to 10, but Williamsburg outscored Bellwood-Antis 6-1 to close out the quarter with a 15 point lead.
In the third quarter both teams struggled to score.
Bellwood-Antis was able to hold Tate scoreless, and she managed only one point the entire second half.
“We stepped it up a little more, and we helped each other out,” Bellwood-Antis head coach Nick Lovrich said.
With the Lady Blue Devils trailing 36-20, Hatch nailed a deep three-pointer to cut the lead to 13, but Williamsburg wouldn’t allow Bellwood-Antis to get back into the game. Kara Yeager seemingly put the final nail in the coffin with a three-pointer in the final seconds of the quarter to stretch the lead back to 17.
However, as the have done many times this year, Bellwood-Antis played their best in the final quarter.
Hatch hit a jump shot, stole the ball and made a layup to begin the quarter, and after Tate scored her only point of the second half on a free throw, Smith made two baskets for the Lady Blue Devils.
Lindsey Claar made a jump shot to make the score 45-35, and after Williamsburg managed a free throw, Hatch made her third three-pointer of the game to pull Bellwood-Antis within six.
Unfortunately for the Lady Blue Devils there was not enough time left to pull themselves the whole way back. Sinisi fouled out, and Severa made all six of her free throw attempts in the final two minutes to pull Williamsburg back to a double-digit lead.
With seven seconds left Smith hit a three-pointer to make the final score 50-41.
“We showed a lot of heart in the fourth quarter and put the ball in the hole, but we need to be able to do that the whole game,” Lovrich said.
Williamsburg held Bellwood-Antis’ leading scorer Lauren Carter to only seven points.
“They played aggressive and it led to us making a lot of turnovers. That was the downfall of the game,” Lovrich said.
Bellwood-Antis will play next at 6 p.m. Tuesday at West Branch.
Junior Varsity
Brooke Zimmerman scored 17 points while playing only the first half for Williamsburg in a 52-12 victory over Bellwood-Antis. Jessica Parson and Shalee Hunter both had six points to account for Bellwood-Antis’ points.
Williamsburg 50 Bellwood-Antis 41
Williamsburg – Harker 3 2-2 8, Tate 8 2-4 22, Zimmerman 2 0-0 4, Severa 0 9-10 9, Houck 1 1-3 3, Yeager 1 0-0 3, Bookhammer 0 1-2 1, Lee 0 0-0 0, Cordova 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 15-21 50.
Bellwood-Antis – Ralston 2 0-0 4, Smith 4 2-4 11, Carter 3 1-2 7, Sinisi 1 1-2 3, Hatch 5 1-2 14, Claar 1 0-2 2, TOTALS 16 5-12 41.
Score by Quarter
Williamsburg 18 15 9 8 – 50
Bellwood-Antis 5 13 7 16 – 41
Three-Point goals: Williamsburg 5 (Tate 4, Yeager 1).
Bellwood-Antis 4 (Hatch 3, Smith 1).
