Coming off a double digit lose to Penns Valley, the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils were facing a tough road game against Claysburg-Kimmel. B-A seemed to have no trouble getting out of the gates in this one. An 11-1 start was just what they were looking for. With 5:33 left in the first period, Claysburg had to burn a timeout to slow down the B-A offense. Bellwood-Antis continued their offense push to the last second of the quarter, ending it with a Richard Wood layup to make the score at the end of the first, 24-6.
“We talked about coming out and playing with passion and having fun. I wanted them to come out and enjoy being in this gym playing basketball. When they do that they become positive and having a positive attitude help our shots start to fall and things started to snowball for Claysburg.” Bellwood-Antis head coach Tim Keech commented about his team’s great start.
The second quarter picked up right where it left off. B-A went on a 4-0 run to cause another quick TO from Claysburg. With 6:40 left in the half, Bellwood had a comfortable lead of 28-6. Claysburg-Kimmel started to battle back throughout the rest of the period as Peter Dehoff drained a late Three-ball to make the score 43-22 in favor of the Blue Devils heading into the half. B-A came out blazing in the first half shooting an amazing 9-14 from 3-point range. Although their 3-pointers were falling, the Blue Devils shooting from the stripe was not so good, converting three out of eight from the foul line in the first half, and 14 of 25 overall from the floor. Turnovers were not that much of a factor on the score board, but seven turnovers in the first half is not quite what Coach Keech wants.
“I’d like to only have 10 or less for the game but I’ll take the turnovers we had today considering last season we put numbers in the 20’s for turnovers.”
B-A finished the game with 12 total turnovers.
Second half action was just that, a lot of physical action that is. A football-like third quarter took place. Even the score for the quarter was football-like, 7-6. In a somewhat surprising offensive struggle for the Blue Devils, went 0-5 before making a rebound putback, plus a foul that caused yet again a Kimmel timeout. With 5:06 left in the third, the score was 45-22 in favor of B-A. The defense for Bellwood picked up the slack of the offense in the 3rd period only giving up 3 points until Bruce Helsley banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the score B-A, 50, Claysburg, 28.
With 7:45 left in the game, B-A’s Paul Greiner grabbed a caroom and pushed ther ball back up into the basket, further extending Bellwood’s lead, 55-33. Fouling by Claysburg put Bellwood into the one-and-one bonus with 4:24 left in the game. B-A kept up the intensity and made their way into the double bonus (10 fouls) with about a minute to play. After a Tony DelGrosso back down layup, B-A led 61-35. Bruce Helsley made a trey with less than a minute in the game to bring it to 61-38. Paul Christner, B-A sophomore, added a foul shot, and Helsley hit two free throws to cap off the scoring in this one. Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils win big over the Claysburg-Kimmel Bulldogs, 62-40.
“Our one goal we had for tonight was to leave this gym with a victory.” Coach Keech stated after winning the Blue Devils first game of the year. “We wanted to do the things we needed to do to feel good after coming off a lose.”
Paul Greiner, a senior at Bellwood-Antis, had an outstanding game cashing in 19 points and collecting 12 rebounds. Coach Keech feels good about where his senior leader is headed this year.
“I don’t think he though he played as well as he could at Penns Valley, and I know he felt badly about it,” said Keech. “He had a real good day at practice yesterday shooting the ball, so I felt that coming into today, he’d be in a good positive attitude about his shooting ability.”
“I just want to keep the team up and keep winning games.” Paul Greiner commented after the game. “I think we’ll have a better year this year as long as we don’t worry about the past. Last year we were inexperienced but this year we have a lot of talent back and we’re not as nervous as we were last year. I know we have the confidence and we’re excited about this year.”
Coach Keech also felt well about the other kids on the team, “stepping up” and making the shots they needed to as the game went along.
B-A’s next challenge is against new head coach Tom McConnell and Bishop Guilfoyle. With Bellwood’s poor percentage from the foul line, Coach Keech is looking to improve his players on their foul shooting. B-A went 8-15 from the strip tonight, and that’s not going to get the job done, is it Coach Keech?
“We have to work on our free throws. Eight for 15 is not going to get it done against a team like BG. If the game’s going to be close, we have to make sure when we go to the line, we’re going to knock them down.”
B-A finished the game shooting 24-48 from the field, and 10-19 from behind the 3-point line.
The junior varsity won big as well. Starting the game on a 27-0 run before Claysburg-Kimmel scored their first basket. Final score in that one was 41-12.
Bellwood-Antis 62 Claysburg-Kimmel 40
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Greiner 6 4-5 19, Wood 1 0-0 2, Christner 6 1-2 12, Bell 4 0-0 8, DeArmitt 2 0-0 4, Blazer 2 0-0 4, Seidel 0 0-0 0, Gonzales 0 0-0 0, Edmiston 1 1-2 3, Boone 0 0-1 0, Winterstein 1 0-0 3, McClellan 1 2-5 5. TOTALS 24 8-15 62.
CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL – Helsley 9 4-8 21, Nale 2 2-4 6, Iachini 0 2-2 2, Dehoff 2 3-4 8, Sybert 1 1-2 3. TOTALS 14 12-20 40.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 24 19 7 12 – 62
Claysburg-Kimmel 6 16 6 12 – 40
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 10 (Greiner 3, Christner 3, Bell 2, Winterstein 1, McClellan 1).
Claysburg-Kimmel 4 (Helsley 3, Dehoff 1).
