The Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils came into their game on Saturday, with BG with a record of 1-1. After somewhat of a slow paced game in their last one with Claysburg, B-A and Bishop Guilfoyle put on a clinic of battling and hustle.
Early in the first, great defense helped B-A stay close to a fast paced BG offense. Aaron Bell of Bellwood-Antis hustled back after a turnover to swat the ball away and save an easy lay-up. Paul Greiner added a lay-up of his own to pull Bellwood-Antis ahead by one, 5-4 with 3:20 left in the first. With 58 seconds left, BG was up by 4 until McClellan put in an easy basket to make it 11-9.
McConnell of BG comes right back down the floor and answers to pull BG back up by four. With only two seconds on the clock Seasoltz of BG nails a three pointer to put BG up by seven at the end of the first, 16-9.
Second quarter action starts up with B-A’s Paul Greiner scoring an easy basket. Aaron Bell comes back for B-A and makes the score 18-13 and forces BG to call a timeout with 6:02 left in the half. With 5:37 left Myers of BG scores his 10th point of the game to make it, 20-13.
Greiner pulled B-A within five once again with a basket of his own. With 4:33 left in the half, something you don’t see very often in a varsity game happened. L. J. Seidel of B-A makes a wide open lay-up, in his own basket. The score counted, but Bellwood got the ball back. The score is now 22-15 in favor of BG. A pair of Blaze Winterstein free throws pulled B-A within five again, making the score 22-17. McClellan jab steps around his defender for an easy lay-up to pull the Blue Devils within three, 22-19.
With 2:34 left in the half, Seidel redeems himself with a pair of free ones to cut the score to 24-21. With 1:42 left to go, Greiner took it strong to the hole and makes it, but is called for an offensive foul, the score remaining 28-22. Greiner comes right back with 1:17 left and drains a trey to make it, 28-25. B-A had a chance to take the lead late in the second half but missed four foul shots in a row to keep BG’s lead intact. BG held the ball for the last shot, but it was off the mark, to make your score at halftime, 28-26 in favor of BG.
Greiner had 11 of his game high 18 in the first 2 quarters of play. After a flurry of three’s in their last game, B-A only had one-of-three from beyond the arc tonight. Foul shooting was once again a problem for B-A only going 7-15 while BG went 8-12. Turnovers had been a bit high for B-A in the past, but not in this one. Only two turnovers at the half helped B-A keep this one close.
The third quarter opened up with BG’s Krasgo nailing a three to extend BG’s lead 31-26. DeArmitt of B-A answers right back with a trey of his own to pull Bellwood back to 31-29. With 6:27 left in the third DeArmitt tries a three, which is no good, but Mike Blazer grabs an offensive rebound and kicked it out to McClellan who does make his three to put B-A up by one, 32-31. This is B-A’s first lead since it was 5-4 in the first quarter. BG Coach McConnell takes a timeout to talk to his guys to calm them down.
Whatever he said to them, it worked. With 6:07 Saint-John of BG takes it strong to the hole to put BG back into the lead, 33-32. Greiner drained an 18 footer to put B-A back up by one. McConnell comes right back and makes a 15 foot jump shot to put BG back into the lead. Blazier, of B-A, comes up from the post and makes an elbow jumper to put B-A back up. McConnell came back down the floor and nailed a three to put BG up by two now, 38-36. Myers gets a nice feed inside to extend BG’s lead to four points. With 2:11 left Coach Keech calls a timeout after his group had turned the ball over a couple times and fouled out of frustration. Score at the timeout is 41-36.
Seasoltz makes his second three of the day to put BG up 44-36 with 1:40 left in the quarter. BG again works it around for the last shot but misses it to make the score heading into the final period of play 46-38 in favor of BG.
The fourth quarter scoring began when BG’s Saint-John makes a great move to get around his defender to now make the BG lead double digits, 48-38. With 7:04 left Seasoltz feeds Saint- John inside to put BG up by 12 and forced a B-A timeout.
Coming out of the timeout B-A commits a turnover and gives the ball back to BG without scoring. With 6:37 left, Craig of BG makes a baseline shot to put BG further ahead, 52-38. Greiner finally ends the drought for B-A with a huge three with 6:17 left to play. B-A is now down by 11.
Greiner drove to the basket drawing the foul and making the basket, but misses the foul shot to make the score, 56-45. With :42 left in the game, Bell drains a three to pull B-A within eight, 58-50. With :25 seconds left, Bell makes another three-pointer to make it, 60-53, but BG would hold on and win with the final being 60-53.
Bellwood-Antis finished the game shooting 6-11 from beyond the arc, 7-15 from the line, and 20-41 overall from the field. B-A had a drought in the third that helped BG pull away from them.
“BG really tried to pull away earlier in the game, but my kids did a great job of coming back and making it a two-point game at halftime.” Coach Keech commented after the game. “We went through that drought and BG made some key shots to pull away, but to the credit of my kids, they never quit and kept fighting until the end.”
B-A is now 15-30 from the foul line in the past two games. Coach Keech was not very happy with his team’s performance from the line.
“We could have gone into halftime up, but we missed four shots in a row, and things like that are really going to cause problems for us. We just have to relax at the line and make the shots we need to.”
B-A only had four total turnovers in the game which made Coach Keech happy. “To be pressed the whole game and only turn the ball over four times is something to be proud of, especially against a team like BG.”
Bellwood-Antis’ next game is Monday night at home against Glendale, which lost both their match-up’s to B-A last year. Tip-off time is scheduled for 6 p.m. for the JV game.
The Bellwood-Antis JV’s won their match-up against BG, pulling out a win in a game that was close until the end, 47-37.
Bishop Guilfoyle 60 Bellwood-Antis 53
BISHOP GUILFOYLE – Saint-John 2 0-2 7, Seasoltz 3 3-3 8, McConnell 7 2-3 17, Myers 6 0-0 12, Krasgo 2 2-2 7, Zimmerman 1 1-2 3, Wiener 1 0-0 2, Craig 1 0-0 2, Giosa 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 8-12 60.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Greiner 8 0-1 18, Bell 4 1-2 11, Blazier 1 0-0 2, Christner 0 0-0 0, Boone 1 0-0 2, McClellan 4 0-0 7, DeArmitt 1 0-2 3, Edmiston 1 0-2 2, Winterstein 1 3-4 5, DelGrosso 0 1-2 1, Seidel 0 2-2 2. TOTALS 20 7-15 53.
Score by Quarters
BISHOP GUILFOYLE 16 12 18 14 – 60
BELLWOOD-ANTIS 9 17 12 15 – 53
Three point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 4 (Seasoltz 2, McConnell, Krasgo).
