Bellwood-Antis threw a scare into the undefeated Everett Lady Warriors in a girls basketball game at Bellwood on Wednesday night, slicing the Everett lead to a single point twice in the early portion of the third period. Experience for the Lady Warriors and an overwhelming advantage at the foul line proved to be too much for the B-A girls to compensate for however in a 45-28 Everett win.
After trailing by 10 points with 3:25 to play in the second quarter, the Lady Blue Devils got a basket from Crixella Jones and a conventional three-point play by Liz Erickson on a bucket and foul shot to slice the lead to 16-11 in a low-scoring first half. Then a three-pointer by Chelsea Young, the only trey by either team in the game, and a Victoria Lombardo steal and basket to begin the third quarter cut the B-A deficit to 17-16. Following an Everett score, Shalee Hunter pumped in a basket to edge the Lady Blue Devils back to within a point again, 19-18.
Everett turned up the defensive pressure at that point against the young inexperienced B-A squad that had trouble taking care of the ball for the second straight game, resulting in an 11-1 for the rest of the third period. Erickson sank one of two free throws for the only Blue Devil point in that run to leave the Lady Warriors with a 30-19 lead at the end of three.
With help from Amy Miller, who sank a dozen of her 15 shots from the charity stripe, Everett pushed the lead to 45-23, before Alycia Hippo canned two baskets and a foul shot to close out the game and cut the final score to 45-28.
Four Lady Blue Devils (Brittany Webb, Victoria Lombardo, Shalee Hunter and Liz Erickson) were flagged with four fouls during the game, which hurt the B-A girls chances, in addition to being outshot at the foul line by 24 free throws.
“They did shoot 33 foul shots-I don’t really have a comment on that,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ali Stodart. “Part of that was their being aggressive and taking the ball to the basket. We need to take better care of the ball right now.”
Everett converted just one more goal from the field 12-11, but made 21 of 33 from the line while the Lady Blue Devils only went to the line nine times, converting five.
“We saw a big improvement from the way we played on Monday,” said Stodart. “We came out and executed exactly what we needed for about three minutes and then it kind of fell apart. We just have to get better as a team, and that’s going to come with experience, being in those kind of situations and understanding that when something is working to press on and continue to do it.
Erickson gave the Lady Blue Devils their only lead of the season in the first two games, by opening the game with a basket at the 5:45 mark of the opening period, but Everett ran off six straight points, before Hunter hit a short banker to cut the lead to 6-4. The first quarter ended with Everett on top 9-4.
Erickson led the way for Bellwood-Antis with nine points and Hippo and Lombardo each added five points. Erickson pulled down 16 rebounds and had two blocks, while Lombardo had seven boards, and Hunter added one block and five rebounds.
Andrea Layton and Miller scored 16 points each and Kayla Nave added seven points, for the Everett girls, who improved their record to a perfect 4-0.
Bellwood-Antis (0-2) will travel to Mount Union tonight for a game that was originally scheduled for Friday, but has been moved up a night because of the Bellwood-Antis/Southern Columbia PIAA Eastern Final football game at Shamokin on Friday night. Junior varsity action will began at 6 p.m. and the varsity game will follow at 7:30.
Junior Varsity
The Bellwood-Antis junior varsity (1-1) picked up their first victory of the year for coach Chris Walker downing Everett’s JayVees 37-27. Holding on to a tiny 18-17 advantage at halftime. Bellwood-Antis saw the Everett junior varsity score the first eight points of the second half to jump into a 25-18 lead.
But the Lady Blue Devils reached back and ran off the next 18 points to ice the win. Lauren Lender hit a basket at the end of the third period to push the B-A girls into the lead again 26-25 and then opened the fourth quarter with three straight foul shots to lead the charge.
Alycia Hippo paced the winners with 16 points and Lender added seven points.
Morgann Clingerman led Everett with eight points.
Everett 45 Bellwood-Antis 28
Everett – Clark 0 0-0 0, Miller, 2 12-15 16, Layton 8 0-1 16, Shaw 0 0-0 0, Beegle 0 2-5 2, Nave 2 3-6 7, Northcroft 0 0-0 0, Foor 0 4-8 4. TOTALS 12 21-33 45.
Bellwood-Antis – Ingram 0 0-0 0, Webb 0 0-0 0, Young 1 0-0 3, Lombardo 2 1-2 5, Lechner 0 0-0 0, Lender 0 0-0 0, Hunter 2 0-2 4, Erickson 3 3-7 9, Jones 1 0-0 2, Hippo 2 1-1 5. TOTALS 11 5-9 28.
Three point goals – Everett-none
Bellwood-Antis 1 (Young).
