Bellwood-Antis traveled to Penns Valley on Saturday night for an opportunity to win a share of the Juniata Valley League Championship. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils they would come out on the short end of a 51–45 Penns Valley win. This win would give Penns Valley the conference championship.
Little did anyone in attendance realize the tone would be set in the Junior Varsity game, also won by Penns Valley 41–30. During the third quarter of the J.V. game the official made a rather, hmmmm, bizarre call. The call was greeted with a chorus of boos from the Bellwood-Antis fans, which by the way totally outnumbered the Penns Valley fans. The official then stopped the game and yelled for security and said “any more outburst and I am totally clearing the gym.” Say what?????? My goodness, does someone have some power issues here?
Then with 3:28 seconds left in the first quarter of the varsity game, the varsity official hit Bellwood-Antis head coach Tim Keech with a very, no extremely questionable technical foul. Coach Keech was seated on the bench and yelled, “he has his hands all over him, you got to get his hands off of him.” Slam, technical foul!! Granted, officials have a rough job and for the most part do a good job, but really. In a championship game it sure seemed to be inappropriate.
The Blue Devils would totally outplay Penns Valley in the first quarter and would lead by four 12–8 after one period. Alan Wertz had eight rebounds for the Blue Devils in the period.
Penns Valley would go on a nine point run to start the second period and you could see that defense would be the key to this game. With this nine point run Penns Valley would be able to change a four-point deficit into a 17–12 lead. The Penns Valley defense would not allow Bellwood-Antis to score until 3:51 remaining in the period when Alan Wertz put in an offensive rebound and was fouled but missed the foul shot.
Bellwood-Antis played some great defense and took a charge call to set up a tremendous assist from Ben Hatch to Alan Wertz. Just like that the Blue Devils had come back within one at 17–16. Then at the 1:43 mark of the period Wertz was fouled and went to the line to shoot a one and one. Wertz would make the first, but missed the second as Bellwood knotted the score at 17–17.
Penns Valley came right down and answer, with Jake Wiest hitting a three to put the Rams up 20–17. This is how the first half would end.
Bellwood-Antis had the better shooting percentage in the first half over the Rams thirty-three percent to twenty-nine percent. The difference in the half was that Penns Valley had hit two three- point shots to Bellwood’s one. Normally all year the Blue Devils had the upper hand in three point shooting.
To start the third period Bellwood-Antis would go on a four- point run as Paul Christner hit a jumper and Ben Hatch set Wertz up with a perfect alley-oop pass with Wertz banking in the hanging lay-up with 6:55 to play. Bellwood-Antis had taken the lead 21- 20.
Then came a bitter pill. After the teams traded baskets for the rest of the way, Penns Valley had a 32–30 lead with less than 0:20 to play in the third, and possession of the ball. With four seconds in the quarter Jake Wiest went to shoot, jumped, let the ball go straight up, came down and then caught the ball and threw up another jump shot at the horn that was ruled a bucket rather than steps. Bellwood-Antis would find themselves down by four 34–30 to start the fourth quarter.
Penns Valley hit a jumper to start the quarter, but the Blue Devils would not roll over. They went on a five point run of their own to close to one at 36–35. Jake Wiest would come down and answer with another three point shot for the Rams and with 6:02 remaining the score was 39–35 Penns Valley. Penns Valley scored four more points while holding Bellwood-Antis scoreless to build their biggest lead of the night 43–35 with 3:19 left in the contest. Penns Valley went into a four corner offense to work the clock, forcing the Blue Devils to foul and the Rams proved to be deadly from the foul line. The horn would sound and the Rams clinched the Juniata Valley League Championship with a 51–45 win over the Blue Devils.
During post game comments Coach Keech said, “We had to take advantage of our height. It is a tribute to them (Penns Valley). They are a good team.” Coach Keech continued saying, “They made a few more shots than we did. I am glad we played hard and I am proud of the way we played tonight. We will make some adjustments and be ready to go on Friday evening. Our season is not over.”
Yes, Friday will give the Blue Devils another chance at reaching a district championship. Friday night, fresh team, fresh clock and fresh officials. Should be a very good game.
Game notes: Alan Wertz scored a double/double by putting in a game high fifteen points and fourteen rebounds for Bellwood. Blaze Winterstein would hit for eleven on the night. Jake Wiest with twenty points and a game high led Penns Valley. Jesse Deloof would score sixteen and pull down thirteen rebounds for Penns Valley. Bellwood-Antis falls to 19–5 (16–2 Juniata Valley League) while Penns Valley moves to 19–4 (18–0 JVL). Eli Austin scored a game high six points for the Blue Devil J.V. team. The J.V. team ends the year at 11–9 for Coach Matt Stinson. Bellwood-Antis’ first playoff game will be Friday night, as they will take on the winner of the Penns Valley versus West Branch game at a site to be determined.
Penns Valley 51 Bellwood-Antis 45
Bellwood-Antis: Christner 4 1–1 9, Winterstein 4 2–3 11, Hatch 3 0–0 7, Wertz 6 3–5 15, Elvey 1 1–1 3 Totals: 18 7–10 45
Penns Valley: Lee 1 1–2 3, Wiest 7 0–2 20, Brown 1 2–2 4, Wingard 2 0–0 4, Deloof 4 7–8 16, Bogus 1 2–2 4 Totals: 18 12–16 51
Bellwood-Antis 12 5 13 15 – 45
Penns Valley 8 12 14 17 – 51
Three point shots: Bellwood-Antis 2 (Winterstein, Hatch)
Penns Valley 3 (Wiest 2, Deloof)
Technical foul: Bellwood Bench
