Bellwood-Antis had just come off of a two game road trip in which they lost to both Central Cambria and Tyrone. The home cooking was just what the Blue Devils needed, as they hosted the Vikings from Glendale last evening in Bellwood.
“I thought we came out and set the tone early and jumped on them quick,” said Bellwood-Antis’ head coach Tim Keech after last evening\’s game.
That is exactly what happened for the Blue Devils for the first time all year. The Blue Devils came out of the locker room and jumped on an opponent. Bellwood-Antis would score the first eight points of the game and had jumped out to an 8-0 lead at the 4:51 mark of the first quarter. Defensively the Blue Devils were playing tough, as they held Glendale scoreless until the 2:04 mark of the first quarter when Ethan Hullihen hit a three pointer for Glendale making the score Bellwood-Antis ten Glendale three. Bellwood would continue to dominate the game through the end of one period building a 13 – 5 lead after the first quarter.
Bellwood-Antis started the second quarter by hitting two three pointers, then cooled off for the remainder of the first half. “I wasn\’t happy at the half. I thought that we let them back in the game,” volunteered Coach Keech after the game.
He was right. The teams traded points the entire second quarter with each scoring thirteen points. The Blue Devils allowed Glendale to hang around at the half and went to the locker room with a 26 – 18 lead.
Glendale had the advantage in rebounds at the half pulling down thirteen rebounds to Bellwood\’s twelve. Bellwood-Antis was able to shoot 36 percent from the floor while holding Glendale to 23 percent in the first half.
The third quarter Bellwood came out and took it right to the Vikings, as the Blue Devils superior height started to show, and the adjustments made at the half began to pay off, as Bellwood-Antis was able to stretch their lead.
“We played better and the adjustments that we made worked well for us,” added Coach Keech. “We ran our set plays with some adjustments and then we ran motion and things worked very well for us,\” stated Keech. Indeed they did. Bellwood-Antis was running the floor very well and hitting their shots on offense. Alan Wertz was crashing the boards and at one time rejected two Glendale shots within a matter of three seconds to help move the Blue Devils out to a twenty point lead at 42 – 22 at the 2:10 mark of the third period.
In the third quarter of action, the Blue Devils doubled up Glendale in scoring 18-9 to take a 44-27 lead into the final period of play.
The lead would soon swell to an even twenty points at 50-30 with 5:27 to go in the game. Ben Hatch played a very good game, scoring a game high twenty points for Bellwood. He also ran the floor well for the Blue Devils.
Alan Wertz came up with a double/double for the evening by scoring fourteen points and bringing down thirteen rebounds. “I thought Allen Wertz played a great game. I was very happy with the way he played,” said a pleased Coach Keech. “This was a team win tonight,” smiled Coach Keech.
“One thing we need to work on and realize is that we need to lob the ball in higher to both Wertz and Jenkins. It would make things a whole lot easier for us. Right now we are lobbing the ball in at head level and making it a much tougher play on us than it needs to be,” concluded Tim Keech.
Game notes: Ben Hatch led all scorers with twenty points. Alan Wertz would put in fourteen points and Tyler Elvey thirteen. Wertz led Bellwood in rebounding with twelve. Brock Kauffman led Glendale with fourteen points. Bellwood out rebounded Glendale 24 – 20 for the game. Bellwood shot 48 percent from the floor and Glendale 30 percent. The win moves Bellwood to 7-2 on the year ( 6-0 in the JVL). Glendale drops to 3-7. Bellwood-Antis hosts Juniata Valley on Saturday evening. Bellwood-Antis won the J.V. contest 67-50 to move their record to 3-3 on the year. Nate Gray led Bellwood with 17 points.
Bellwood-Antis 64 Glendale 46
Bellwood-Antis: Christner 2 0-0 4, Winterstein 1 0-0 3, Hatch 8 2-2 20, Wertz 6 1-2 14, McCrum 1 0-0, 2, Elvey 5 0-0 13, B. DeGol 0 0-2 0, Miller 1 0-0 2, Jenkins 2 0-0 4, Gray 1 0-0, 2 Totals 27 3-6 64
Glendale: B. Hullihen 2 3-3, 8, Kauffman 5 3-4 14, E. Hullihen 2 0-0 6, Yingling 3 2-3 8, Kimberly 1 4-5 6, O\’Donnell 2 0-0 4 Totals 15 12-15 46.
