For two quarters of Thursday night’s District Six first round game with Richland, the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devil basketball team played like it had just came off of an 11-day lay-off. The final two quarters were a completely different story.
The Blue Devils were able to overcome a two-point halftime deficit and pulled away in the fourth period on their way to a 59-46 victory at Central Cambria High School.
Most of the first half was played to a stalemate. Bellwood-Antis jumped out to an early lead, leading 4-0, and 6-2 before Richland’s highly dangerous guard, Jim Tucker, got going offensively. The quick-as-lightning senior scored 10 points in the first half, leading his team to a 21-to-19 halftime advantage.
The Blue Devil’s senior tandom of Ryan Myers scored eight points and Steve Crider added six in the first half to keep the Blue Devils close as the two teams headed for the locker room.
Most of the third quarter was played much like the first and second periods. Neither team was able to take a lead of more than four points as both teams struggled to grab the momentum heading into the final period.
With less than a minute remaining in the third quarter and the Blue Devils trailing by one, Ricky Shannon hit a three-pointer from the left wing to give the Devils a two-point lead. Richland then tied the game with a quick two pointer with less than 15 seconds to play in the period. Bellwood-Antis senior guard Steve Crider then brought the ball down the floor and hit a short pull-up shot off the glass to give the Devils a 33-31 lead with one period to play.
The game’s turning point came at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Blue Devil center Ryan Myers came out past the three-point arch and caught a pass from point guard Ricky Shannon. He then hit Shannon on a backdoor cut with an alley-OOP lob pass that Shannon finished with an acrobatic lay-up that seemed to awaken a Bellwood-Antis offense that had been dormant for most of the game.
Bellwood-Antis then went on to dominate the final period of play, scoring 26 points in the final 8:00.
At one point, the Blue Devils went on a 17-4 run that gave them a commanding 18 point lead with less than two minutes to play.
Richland hit a barrage of three-pointers in the waning seconds of the game. But Bellwood finished off the win with free throws, as the Rams were forced to foul in desperation. The Blue Devils hit eight-of-12 free throws in the fourth quarter to seal a 59-46 win.
A big factor in the game’s result was Bellwood’s rebounding. Ryan Myers and Steve Crider pulled 10 rebounds each as the Blue Devils dominated the boards, pulling 31 rebounds compared to Richland’s 21.
“Richland had a lot of height,” said Bellwood coach Tim Keech. “But we still thought that we had the advantage on the boards. We focused on rebounding in practice and that really paid off for us.”
Keech was also impressive with the way his senior point guard handled the responsibility of covering Richland’s star player Jimmy Tucker.
“Tucker is a great player,” said Keech. “But Ricky (Shannon) did a really nice job of not necessarily stopping him, but slowing him down to the point that we controlled the pace of the game.”
Playing its first game in 11 days, Bellwood-Antis showed some signs of rust in the first quarter. But after halftime, it seemed as if they had all the kinks worked out.
“I told the kids before the game, with the long lay-off we had, all they had to focus on was just to win and advance,” Keech said. “After we got back into the flow of playing again, they really stepped it up in the fourth quarter.”
Bellwood-Antis was led by Ryan Myers who scored 19 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter. Dan Smith added 18 points, including 3 three-pointers, and Steve Crider posted 12 of his own. The aforementioned Myers is now just 10 points away from 1,000 for his career.
The Blue Devils will now have to wait until Saturday to find out who they will play next. The Devils will take on the winner of Saturday’s game between Cambria Heights and Ligonier Valley.
Bellwood-Antis 59 Richland 46
RICHLAND – Tucker 6 4-4 18, Ford 3 0-2 7, Wilson 2 0-0 4, Wingard 2 4-5 9, Samko 2 0-0 6, Prohonic 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 16 8-11 46.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Shannon 3 1-3 8, Smith 7 1-2 18, Crider 6 0-0 12, Carlson 1 0-0 2, Myers 4 11-15 19, Greiner 0 0-0 0, Mattern 0 0-0 0, Hughes 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 13-20 59.
Score By Quarters
Richland 8 13 10 15 – 46
Bellwood-Antis 7 12 14 26 – 59
Three-point goals Richland 6 (Tucker 2, Samko 2, Wingard 1, Ford 1); Bellwood-Antis 4 (Smith 3, Shannon 1)
