The Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devils knew that the trip to Penns Valley is always a difficult one. Penns Valley is one of the elite teams in the Juniata Valley League along with the Lady Devils, and when these two teams get together it is almost always an entertaining game. Penns Valley got the best of Bellwood 76-62 on this outing, causing the Lady Blue Devils to fall to 2-2 overall and 2-1 in league play.
The Lady Blue Devils were plagued by a slow start very similar to the way they started against Williamsburg. However, in a second half that saw both teams go back and forth trading baskets, Bellwood couldn’t make the comeback to overtake the Rams.
“We started off sluggish,” said Bellwood coach Nick Lovrich. “We outscored them in the second half but the the first half deficit was just too much to overcome.”
Indeed, the Lady Blue Devils struggled early as the scored read 19-9 in favor of the Rams at the end of one quarter and 37-21 at intermission.
Coach Lovrich knew his girls would come out of the locker room fired up and BA made a few mini-runs in the second half.
Katie Gardner carried the Lady Devils, especially in the second half where she netted 24 of her game high 34 points. She also pulled 12 boards to record the double double.
“Katie played a good all-around game tonight,” said Lovrich. “Katie is capable of having games like this and she really played well.”
Bellwood played even with Penns Valley in the second half, but the Rams used 24 point performances from both Katrina Greer and Brandy O’Hara to help seal the victory. Brittany Corl also chipped in with 14 for the Lady Rams.
Fortunately for Penns Valley, standout sophmore forward Steph Hatch tallied 8 points, mainly due to early foul trouble. Coach Lovrich feels his team is almost at their peaking point.
“We are starting to play much better team defense,” Lovrich added “Foul trouble hurt us early on, but the girls are moving to the right spots and we missed a good many charge calls by just a few inches. It was a tough loss, but we can take some good things out of this game.”
Penns Valley improves to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in Juniata Valley league play.
Penns Valley sunk 32 of 40 free throws in the game, while Bellwood-Antis hit 21 of 36.
The Lady Devils return to action when they host West Branch on Monday. JV action tips at 6:00 with Varsity following at 7:30.
Junior Varsity
The Bellwood Antis Lady Blue Devil Junior Varsity team fell to the Lady Rams by a score of 45-32. Lauren Carter led Bellwood with 12 points. The JV squad dropped to 2-2 on the year and will take on the Lady Warriors of West Branch on Monday.
Penns Valley 76 Bellwood-Antis 62
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Worthing 2 1-2 6, Edevane 1 5-6 7, Hatch 3 2-2 8, Meredith 2 1-6 5, Gardner 12 10-18 34, A. Smith 0 2-2 2, Sprankle 0 0-0 0, Ridgeway 0 0-0 0, Carter 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20-21-36 62.
PENNS VALLEY – Helm 1 1-2 3, Imel 0 2-2 2, Wiest 0 0-0 0, Greer 5 13-15 24, Lucas 1 4-6 6, Corl 5 3-7 14, O’Haro 7 9-10 24, Anderson 2 0-0 4, Mothersbaugh 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 32-40 76.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 9 13 21 18 – 62
Penns Valley 19 18 20 19 – 76
Three-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 1 (Worthing 1); Penns Valley 2 (Corl 1, O’Haro 1)
