A season-long weakness felled the Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devils in their quarterfinal District VI-AA playoff against Westmont-Hilltop on Friday night at Hollidaysburg Junior High School. The Lady Hilltoppers full-court press led to turnovers and easy points as Westmont toppled Bellwood-Antis 77-41.
The two squads had faced off in the finals of the Lady Blue Devil Classic in late December with Westmont running away fro the Lady Blue Devils 52-21.
This time wasn’t much different with Westmont jumping out to a 21-10 first-period advantage and then continued building the lead with scoring margins in all four quarters.
“We’ve been practicing against breaking the press all week,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach Nick Lovrich. “But sometimes it seemed like they had six players out on the floor against us.”
Bellwood-Antis scored the first points when junior Stephanie Hatch fired in a three-pointer from the side, but Westmont took over with Sara Buchan and Katie Linter converting turnovers off the Hilltoppers press into easy points at the other end of the court.
B-A scored 11 points in the second quarter, but was able to hit just two goals from the field, both in the final minute of the quarter. A Katie Gardner-basket with three seconds left cut the Westmont lead to 37-21.
“They made it tough for us to get the ball inside to our scorers,” said Lovrich. “They are very good. They are going to go a lot of places.”
The Lady Blue Devils tried to make a game of it early in the third quarter. Gardner hit a layup and Hatch fired in a trey, one of five three pointers, the B-A junior hit during the game, to slice the margin to 37-26.
Westmont ended that notion in a hurry however, going on a 25-7 run for the rest of the period to take a safe and secure 63-33 lead at the end of three stanzas. Linter scored 10 of her 18 points in the third quarter to lead the Lady Hilltoppers.
“The third quarter started off real well for us,” explained Lovrich. “But then, they hit us like an avalanche. They really got us.”
Although the Mercy Rule kicked in to begin the fourth quarter, Westmont still kept the pressure on with the clock running with Sara Buchan scoring five of her game-best 20 points in the final eight minutes.
Stephanie Hatch led the Lady Blue Devils, who finish the season 16-10 with 18 points and Katie Gardner was the only other B-A girl in double figures with 10 points.
Buchan, who didn’t play in the first meeting in the Lady Blue Devil, Classic led Westmont with 20, Linter scored 18, Kelly Britcher had 12 and Maurer had 10.
Westmont-Hilltop will play Cambria Heights in the semifinals at a day, site and time to be determined. Bellwood-Antis defeated Cambria Heights 55-52 in the opening round of the Lady Blue Devils Classic.
“Our kids played hard,” said Lovrich. “The ball didn’t always bounce our way this season, but I think our seniors showed great effort this year. They have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Westmont-Hilltop 77 Bellwood-Antis 41
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Sprankle 0 3-4 3, Edevane 0 0-1 0, Hatch 5 3-4 18, Meredith 1 3-4 5, Gardner 5 0-0 10, Claar 0 0-0 0, Erickson 1 0-0 2, Swanson 0 0-0 0, Carter 1 1-4 3, Ridgeway 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 10-17 41.
WESTMONT-HILLTOP – Roberts 1 0-0 2, S. Buchan 8 0-0 20, Linter 5 8-8 18, Balog 0 0-0 0, Genday 0 0-0 0, Urban 4 0-0 8, Battaglia 0 1-2 1, Maurer 2 4-6 10, A. Buchan 0 3-4 3, Waligora 1 1-1 3. TOTALS 26 19-23 77.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 10 11 12 8 – 41
Westmont-Hilltop 21 16 25 15 – 77
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 5 (Hatch 5)
Westmont-Hilltop 6 S. Buchan 4, Maurer 2).
