Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

The Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devils basketball team got a lesson from the Southern Huntingdon girls at Bellwood, on Thursday night. Never let up! Never let up!, Never let up! Got that Lady Blue Devils?
Unlike the first time the two Juniata Valley League foes met at Southern Huntingdon on Dec. 19, when Southern outscored the B-A girls in every quarter on the way to a 53-40 win, Bellwood-Antis was in this one from the start, until the final two minutes.
In the last two minutes of Thursday’s ballgame, Southern Huntingdon (16-4 overall, 12-2 in the JVL) outscored the Lady Blue Devils 11-1 to take a victory they didn’t deserve, until that last, fatal to Bellwood-Antis streak.
One of two free throws by B-A sophomore Ashley Lechner at the beginning of the fourth quarter gave the Lady Blue Devils their largest lead of the contest, 34-26. Jordan Speck, daughter of Southern Huntingdon’s coach Phil Speck and B-A sophomore Liz Erickson traded field goals to keep the eight-point B-A advantage.
Southern cut into the Bellwood-Antis advantage, slicing it down to 37-35, before Brittany Webb sank two foul shots to stretch the B-A lead back to four points, and Lechner again managed one of two from the foul line to keep a 40-38 lead. Speck buried a trey to slide the Lady Rockets into a 41-40 lead, but Webb added one of two to tie the game with 1:57 left to play.
Southern showed why they are 12-2 in the Juniata Valley League, staying calm and cool and never panicking. First, freshman Brittany Shields hit a three-pointer to give Southern Huntingdon a three-point lead. Then, after Shalee Hunter hit one of two from the foul line, the Lady Rockets added the final seven points to complete the win.
Two facts stand out in the game for the Lady Blue Devils. First, the B-A girls were only 12 of 21 from the line, including a dismal seven of 15 in the all-important fourth quarter. Southern Huntingdon was eight of 11 from the foul line during the game and six of eight in the fourth quarter.
The second fact was pointed out by Bellwood-Antis coach Ali Stodart. “Especially in the fourth quarter, we kind of got away from what was working for us,” explained Stodart. “We were real patient offensively, we weren’t pressing and we took what they gave us. Then I think we started to press. We were playing not to lose instead of playing to win.”
Erickson scored 10 of her game-high 20 points in the opening quarter, and the Lady Blue Devils scored the final six points of the quarter to take a 14-12 lead after one quarter. Erickson hit a turnaround from just in front of the basket, Shalee Hunter grabbed a rebound and put it back in for a basket and Erickson added another bucket for the two-point B-A advantage.
Scoring was very slow in the second quarter for both teams, due to mistakes, defense and missed shots. After Speck hit a trey and a two point shot, to give the Lady Rockets a 17-14 lead, Erickson hit one shot to cut the Southern Huntingdon to 17-16, then grabbed her own miss and laid it in for a one-point Bellwood-Antis lead. Hunter hit one of two free throws to maintain a 19-17 lead at the half.
Two treys by Lechner, two baskets by Hunter and a bucket and two foul shots fueled Bellwood-Antis to a 33-26 lead at the end of three quarters, to set the stage for a comeback by Southern Huntingdon, who scored just 26 points over the first three quarters, then poured in 26 more in the fourth quarter.
Erickson had 20 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and three steals, and Hunter added eight points, 12 rebounds and two steals. Lechner added eight points.
Speck led Southern Huntingdon with 20 points to tie Erickson for high-game honors, Renee Schmidt had 10 points and Jenna Hershey added nine points.
Junior Varsity
Southern Huntingdon won the junior varsity game 35-30.
Bellwood-Antis kept attempting to rally in the fourth quarter, but Southern’s late three-point shooting spelled the difference.
Amanda Ingram had seven points for the Lady Blue Devils junior varsity, and Crixella Jones added six. Andrea Shope led Southern Huntingdon with 14 points.
Southern Huntingdon 52 Bellwood-Antis 42
Southern Huntingdon – Schmidt 4 2-4 10, Hershey 3 0-0 9, Speck 8 1-1 20, Shields 2 0-0 6, Smith 0 0-0 0, Hockenberry 1 2-2 4, Hall 0 1-2 1, Hummel 0 2-2 2, Locke 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 8-11 52.
Bellwood-Antis – Ingram 0 0-0 0, Webb 0 4-9 4, Young 0 0-0 0, Lombardo 0 2-2 2, Hunter 3 2-4 8, Erickson 9 202 20. TOTALS 14 12-21 42.
Southern Huntingdon 12 5 9 26 – 52
Bellwood-Antis 14 5 14 9 – 42
Three-point goals: Southern Huntingdon 8 Hershey 3, Speck 3, Shields 2)
Bellwood-Antis 2 (Lechner 2)

By Rick