Bellwood Lady Blue Devil head coach Nick Lovrich knows that this one will show up in the win column for his squad. However, the Lady Warriors of West Branch hung around, battled, and came as close as seven points before the Lady Blue Devils finally put them away in a game that was anything but glamorous.
“There are times when we have no sense of urgency,” said Lovrich, whose squad improved to 3-2 on the season and 3-1 in the Juniata Valley League’s first cycle. “We get up a little bit, and we get comfortable and start relaxing. We have to get that killer instinct to put teams away.”
Ashley Edevane and Steph Hatch carried the Blue Devils netting 22 each, including four 3 pointers by Edevane. Lovrich was especially impressed with Edevane’s performance on the evening.
“Ashley kept us together out there,” said Lovrich. “When we needed a bucket or a steal to get the momentum back, she was the one who gave it to us. She really played a heck of a game tonight.”
The game featured the Lady Blue Devils obtaining leads of anywhere from 10-20 points just to see the Warriors claw back and cut down the deficit to avoid being blown out. A big part of the Warriors success was due to 4’11” sophomore point guard Angie Fenush, who finished with 17 on the night.
The Lady Blue Devils began the game in a full court press that proved to be ineffective thanks to the elusiveness and dribbling ability of Fenush, who single handedly carved and sliced her way up and down the floor past Bellwood defenders.
“Their point guard was tough,” Lovrich added. “She did a great job penetrating and beating our press. She was the reason for a lot of their points tonight.”
The first quarter ended 9-8 in favor of the Lady Blue Devils, and Lovrich quickly decided to scrap the full court press and drop into a zone that featured 5’11 forward Steph Hatch at the point of the zone to disrupt the Warrior guards. This is exactly what happened and in no time the lead ballooned to 14.
The halftime score was 28-13 and it looked like the Devils were on their way to putting the game away. West Branch and Bellwood scored 16 points apiece in the 3rd quarter to make it 45-29 BA after three. Edevane and Hatch both continued to pour in big shots to help Bellwood maintain their lead.
Neither team shot well from the charity stripe, with Bellwood finishing 6-12 and the Lady Warriors shooting a dismal 3-15.
“The bottom line is we got the win,” said Lovrich. “We definitely have things we need to work on, but we will get better and better with time.”
The Lady Blue Devils played without their junior forward Katie Gardner, who will be out anywhere from one to three weeks after having surgery.
Bellwood returns to action Thursday when they host the Lady Bulldogs of Claysburg. JV tipoff is at 6 with Varsity following at 7:30.
Junior Varsity
The Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devil junior varsity team improved their record 3-2 with a 48-14 shellacking of West Branch last night. Lauren Carter led all scorers with a game high 19 for the Lady Devils. The girls return to action on Thursday against Claysburg.
Bellwood-Antis 60 West Branch 44
WEST BRANCH (44): Fenush 8 0-4 17, Howe 5 0-0 10, Bosak 2 1-2 5, Cherry 3 2-4 8, Orwick 2 0-5 4. TOTALS 20 3-15 44.
BELLWOOD (60): Worthing 1 0-0 2, Edevane 9 0-0 22, Hatch 11 0-0 22, Smith 1 0-0 2, Meredith 2 2-6 6, Swanson, 0 1-2 1, Sprankle 0 1-2 1, Ridgway 1 2-2 4. TOTALS 21 6-12 60.
Score By Quarters
West Branch 8 5 16 15 – 44
Bellwood-Antis 9 19 16 16 – 60
Three-point goals: West Branch 1 (Fenush 1); Bellwood-Antis 4 (Edevane 4).
