Possibly the best way to describe the kind of season, the Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devils had in 2004-05 would be to say that they had trouble putting wins together.
Playing in a Juniata Valley League that was full of landmines with Class A and AA powerhouses Claysburg-Kimmel, Southern Huntingdon, and Penns Valley, the Lady Blue Devils found it tough to be a consistent winner. The Lady Blue Devils (9-16) never were able to win more than two games in a row, accomplishing that feat twice. Losses also seldom came in multiples, there were two two-game losing streaks and one that was three games long, but until the final five contests of the season, that included a loss to Bishop Guilfoyle in the first round of District VI playoffs, in which the Lady Blue Devils led after three quarters, the 2004-05 season was pretty much a win followed by a loss, a loss followed by a win.
Some of the stiff competition the B-A girls faced began with Juniata Valley (21-5), BG (21-4) and Claysburg-Kimmel (23-2) moving on to the PIAA playoffs and Southern Huntingdon (16-7), Penns Valley (18-6) and Williamsburg (15-8) among the teams in the JVL, who also challenged for District playoff gold.
“I think we’ve played well against a lot of great teams this year,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach Nick Lovrich. “It was an up-and-down roller coaster season. You look at our schedule and you see Claysburg, Penns Valley, Juniata Valley. We play a lot of good teams and have been so close in these games. We had Bishop Guilfoyle in the playoffs for three quarters, before we just ran out of steam. One of these days, we’re going to go up over the top and start winning against teams like these.”
Turnovers killed the Lady Blue Devils, who too often were their own worst enemies, turning the ball over an average of over 18 times per game. These miscues led not only to a lack of scoring on the Lady Blue Devils part, but also to easy buckets by their opponents, particularly early in the season.
“We really only had two girls with any kind of experience to start the season,” said Lovrich. “The other four girls, we really only had six girls we could count on, got their first real varsity experience this year. We had a lot of turnovers early, but as the season progressed, we cut down on our turnovers.”
On offense, Bellwood-Antis was led by twin six-footers, senior Steph Hatch and junior Lauren Carter. Hatch was a four-year starter, and Carter, out the first part of 2003-04 due to injury and worked back in slowly for much of last season, provided the only experience for the Lady Blue Devils.
Carter was the only Lady Blue Devil to record over 100 offensive and defensive rebounds in 2004-05, leading the team with 314 boards to set a new B-A girls record. The old mark of 270, had been set by Randi Baker during the 1998-99 season, when the Blue Devils played 31 games. Although playing outside much of the time in coach Nick Lovrich’s offense, Steph Hatch added 184 rebounds, including 120 defensive boards. Hatch became the top rebounder in Lady Blue Devil history with a career total of 785 boards to break the old record set just last year of 750 by Katie Gardner.
Hatch also utterly smashed the shots blocked mark, which she set in 2002-03 with 67. This season, Steph blocked an amazing 112 shots to give her a three-year total 233 blocked shots. Steph rewrote her own school record for blocked shots in a single game several times before finally setting the mark at 11, against Glendale, on Jan. 31.
Carter and Hatch also teamed up to lead the offense for the Lady Blue Devils in 2004-05. Hatch became the sixth Lady Blue Devil to eclipse the 1,000-point mark with a 14-point performance on Feb. 1, 2005 against Everett. Hatch completed her high school career with a total of 1,060. Kathy Geis (1986-90) stands at the top of the ladder with 1,631 points, followed by Melissa Sitman (1998-01) with 1,435, Misty Meredith (1995-99), Tony DeStefano (1993-97) 1,233, Katie Gardner (2000-04) 1,232 and Hatch with 1,060.
Steph Hatch canned 29 of 40 free throws to lead the Lady Blue Devils with a 72.5 foul shooting percentage and threw in a team-best 33 three-point tries. Lauren Carter led the B-A girls in scoring with 340 points, for a 14.2 average per game. Carter led the way with 63 steals and pulled down 139 offensive rebounds and 175 defensive boards to average 13.1 rebounds per game and added 50 steals. Hatch added an even 300 points to average 12.5 per game. Carter was in double figures 19 times in 24 games, while Hatch recorded double figures in points scored 18 times in 24 contests.
Carter scored a team-best 24 points against Moniteau, in the consolation finals of the annual Lady Blue Devils Classic, when Jamie Smith pumped in a trey at the buzzer and added a foul shot to send the game into overtime and B-A pulled out the win for third place. Lauren had 19 points and 19 rebounds against Juniata Valley, 22 points and 14 boards against Mount Union, and had a total of 42 points and 35 rebounds in two games against West Branch. Hatch, a First-Team PIAA All-State Volleyball player, who had a season-best 21 points in the first West Branch game, did some of her best scoring late in the season, scoring in double figures in her final eight contests and in 11 of the last 12 games.
Hatch and Carter, who were First Team District VI Volleyball players, were both named to the Juniata Valley League Second Team Basketball All-Star squad.
Junior point guard Jamie Smith led the team with 107 assists. Smith also averaged 6.4 points per game and had 105 rebounds. Senior guards Jenna Ralston (4.8 points) and Allison Sinisi (4.2 points and 95 rebounds) and Lindsey Claar (2.1 points and 85 boards) rounded out the Lady Blue Devils starting lineups and first backups.
Although the girls improved slightly over last year in shooting from the charity stripe, the 56.8 percent from the foul line was another reason for the short supply of wins. Opponents converted 62 more free throws, but only scored a total of 80 points more in total points. Opponents had 59 more steals and threw 77 less bad passes.
The B-A junior high girls basketball teams have finished 12-7 in the fall of 2003, and 13-7 with a 12-2 Juniata Valley League mark in 2004, after winning just two games in 2002, so there appears to be help on the way for the varsity. The JVL mark of 12-2 was good for a share of the league title in 2004.
