In their second game of the season, the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils ran into Dan Lewis and Penns Valley. They trailed 31-13 at halftime and lost by 39. Lewis posted 22 points, and the Blue Devils struggled to score even against Rams\’ second stringers.
Thursday night, Bellwood-Antis fell behind the Rams 31-11 at halftime. Lewis led all scorers with 29 points, but this time the Blue Devils used the second half to show what they are capable of by outscoring Penns Valley, still playing all their starters, 30-28.
“There were three different times in the second half where we were close to getting their lead down to 10, and I\’ll tell you what, I thought my kids played their hearts out in the second half. That\’s the way we need to play 32 minutes a game, and if we do that we are going to win a lot of games,” Bellwood-Antis Head Coach Tim Keech said.
Though the second half may prove to be an encouraging springboard for Bellwood-Antis, the game was decided during Penns Valley\’s dominance in the early stages.
Lewis began the game by reminding the Blue Devils that he is not only lethal in the paint, but from beyond the arc as well when he knocked down a 3-pointer. Neil Myer then followed with the first of his four 3-pointers on the night to give the Rams a quick 6-0 lead.
Trailing 11-2, L.J. Seidel was fouled while making a layup and converted the free throw to bring the Blue Devils within six, and Ben Hatch scored the first two of his team-high 15 points with a layup to make the score 11-7.
However, Penns Valley ended the quarter on a 7-0 run that featured five points from Myer and another basket by Lewis to make the score 18-7.
Midway through the second quarter, Taylor Wingard became the first Penns Valley player not named Myer or Lewis to score when he drained a 3-pointer to make the score 21-11. The basket was the first in a 13-0 Rams\’ run to end the half.
Twice during the run, Blaze Winterstein missed the front end of one-and-ones from the foul line. The Blue Devils shot 2-5 from the charity line in the half, giving them a total of 18-38 (47 percent) from the line in their past two and a half games.
“We are a good shooting team, and we have got to be able to go to the foul line and make those shots,” Keech said.
In another example of how drastically different the Blue Devils were in the second half, they sank 11 of 15 free throws.
“For them to come out and shoot like that in the second half, and play as hard as they did and chip away at that lead, that told me an awful lot about these kids,” Keech said.
Winterstein began the scoring for the Blue Devils in the second half with two perfect free throws and a 3-pointer. Paul Christner, who had been limited to two points in the first half, added seven quick points, and Hatch made a layup with 1:05 left in the third quarter to make the score 38-25 and force the Rams to call a timeout.
Shortly after the timeout, Christner missed an open layup that would have brought the Blue Devils within 11, and Lewis converted a jumper at the buzzer for a 4-point swing.
The Blue Devils were able to crawl back into the game by limiting the Rams\’ long distance attack to only one 3-pointer in the second half after they nailed six in the first.”
“We talked about playing hard in the second half, and we wanted to contest shots and get a hand up while communicating better on defense, and I think we did that,” Keech said.
With 3:53 remaining, Hatch made a layup to bring Bellwood-Antis within 13 points, but a 9-2 Rams\’ run ended any chance of a miracle comeback.
The Blue Devils started the game with only nine players in uniform. Anthony Jenkins and Bruno DeGol are still out with injuries, and Justin Miller did not join the team until the second half due to a death in his family.
“The lack of depth is hurting us, especially when teams are pressing us, and we\’re getting tired, and because we are tired we are making mistakes, but in the second half the kids showed they can overcome that stuff,” Keech said.
Seidel and Winterstein fouled out late in the game to make depth an even bigger problem, and the Rams held on for a 59-41 victory.
The Blue Devils will look to build off their momentum in the second half when they host Everett Saturday. The junior varsity game will begin at 6 p.m.
Junior Varsity
Jesse DeLoof scored 11 points for Penns Valley in their low-scoring 33-26 victory against the Blue Devils in the junior varsity game. Penns Valley\’s 10 points in the second quarter marked the only time either team scored double digits in a quarter. Tyler Elvey, who led all scorers with 12 points, made a layup with 4:43 left to cut the Rams\’ lead to 26-23, but a 7-3 Penns Valley run to end the game finished Bellwood-Antis.
Penns Valley 59 Bellwood-Antis 41
PENNS VALLEY – Myer 7 1-2 19, Wiest 0 1-2 1, Wingard 2 0-0 5, Lewis 12 3-4 29, M. Brown 0 0-0 0, N. Brown 1 0-0 2, DeLoof 0 2-2 2, Marshall 0 1-2 1, Musser 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 22 8-12 59.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Hatch 5 4-6 15, Winterstein 1 6-10 9, Christner 5 2-3 12, Wertz 0 0-0 0, Seidel 1 1-1 3, Elvey 0 0-0 0, McCrum 1 0-0 2, Miller 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 13-20 41.
Score by Quarter
Penns Valley 18 13 9 19 – 59
Bellwood-Antis 7 4 14 16 – 41
Three-point goals: Penns Valley 7 (Myer 4, Lewis 2, Wingard 1).
Bellwood-Antis 2 (Hatch, Winterstein).
