It was Senior night at Bellwood-Antis High School for the Lady Blue Devils and looked to beat the top ranked Juniata Valley Lady Hornets Thursday night. The Lady Blue Devils came in with a 9-12 record facing a 19-3 Lady Hornet squad that looked to pick up win number 20 on Bellwood’s Senior night.
Bellwood-Antis honored seniors Steph Hatch, Allison Sinisi, Lindsey Claar and Jenna Ralston before the game.
Bellwood–Antis struck first behind a nice jumper in the corner from Allison Sinisi 10 seconds into the game. The Bellwood student section went crazy pumping up the crowd around them as they knew they were underdogs going into the game.
As the quarter continued on, Bellwood would have some trouble on offense as Juniata Valley switched in and out of a full court man trap into man to man. Extreme pressure was put on the point guards and forced 10 Bellwood first-half turnovers that gave the Lady Hornets a slight edge.
As the first quarter closed to an end, Bellwood remained solid on offense making every shot they could to keep within the fast paced Juniata Valley team.
With just 1:38 to go in the first quarter, Juniata Valley led 8-4 scoring six on fast break lay-ups, but Lauren Carter charged the Bellwood-Antis squad with a three point play and following it up with a bucket to take a 9-8 lead going into the second quarter.
“The pressure hurt us a little bit,” coach Nick Lovrich said, “but sometimes it takes a little time to get used to the speed of the game. No matter how hard you go in practice, the game is always a lot faster. Juniata Valley has a lot of team speed and some of our turnovers were bobbled passes that ended up in their hands.”
With the crowd boosting Bellwood’s momentum up to an extreme level, Juniata Valley kept the score even until Abby Mower nailed a long three pointer to give the Hornets a 17-13 lead with 6:08 to go in the half.
Answering right back was Jamie Smith and Lauren Carter hitting three out of four free throws to cut the Lady Hornet lead to 17-16 with 4:17 left.
Bellwood-Antis would not score for almost three minutes as Juniata Valley tore off an 8-0 run taking a nine point lead with 1:21 left in the half. The Lady Hornets were putting a lot of pressure in the back court, forcing six second quarter turnovers and converting all into lay-ups.
Lauren Carter and Lindsay Claar helped Bellwood get back into the game before the half scoring the last four points making the score 25-20 at the end of the first half.
“I felt comfortable being down five,” Lovrich said, “because we missed a lot of easy shots that could have changed the score for us. I tell the girls that the backboard is their best friend, and we if would have used it a little more, we probably would have made those easy shots early on.”
The momentum was up for grabs, and the third quarter is where teams pull ahead and win games. Whoever would come out the strongest usually wins the game.
A trick play was set up by coach Lovrich as the Bellwood girls once again lined up at the opposite end of the floor as all the players watched Stephanie Hatch take an uncontested fast break for the lay-up.
“A team in our Christmas tournament ran it,” Lovrich said, “and I put it in our playbooks. It’s worked twice for us now and it’s a great trick play to pick up two quick points to start the half off.”
After the trick play, Lady Hornet Claudia McDowell lit up the Lady Blue Devil defense scoring eight straight points which gave the Lady Hornets a 33-22 lead with 6:21 left in the third.
Lovrich quickly called a timeout to settle the girls down and devise a strategy to get back in the game fast.
Carter hit a quick lay-up after the timeout, but Juniata Valley hit four straight points after Carter’s shot giving them a 37-24 lead with 3:31 to go in the third as Lovrich called another timeout to try and stop this run.
Following the timeout, Allison Sinisi came out and nailed a long two that jump-started the Bellwood student section.
With the crowd howling, Juniata Valley started forcing shots and turning the ball over and the Lady Blue Devils loved every second of it as they inched there way back into the game.
With 40 seconds left in the game, it was 37-31 and Hatch was controlling the ball at mid-court when she darted a pass between three Juniata Valley defenders to Lindsay Claar for the lay-up. It was a magnificent pass that stunned the crowd and the Lady Hornet defense, and was definitely one of the top plays of the night.
With the momentum at hand, Bellwood trailed just four points, 37-33 with less that 20 seconds to go in the third when the Lady Hornets lost control of the ball out of bounds that gave Bellwood a chance to cut the lead to a one possession game going to the fourth.
As the ball was passed around for a last shot, McDowell got a hand on the ball that deflected the pass with :04 seconds to go, but it went right to Hatch who had a person tight on her. She gave it up to Jamie Smith, who was at least eight feet behind the three point line, and fired up a prayer that banked in and sent the crowd wild as they pulled a 12-0 run to end the third quarter.
“Whenever they got that big lead behind Claudia McDowell,” Lovrich said, “we wanted to make sure we knew where she was at all times the rest of the game. Our kids battled back and got some turnovers, hit some shots and got right back into the game. That shows a lot of heart and desire on their part. Throughout the course of the game, Allison Sinisi and Jenna Ralston were pulling rebounds inside with girls that are 5’11 and 6’0 tall. That just shows how much heart the girls have. Lindsay Claar is 5’5 and she’s doing the same thing underneath.”
The Lady Blue Devils were looking great going into the fourth and had the entire gym in a frenzy as they rocked the walls from the chants, ‘We are Bellwood.’ It was really enthusiastic and seemed to put Juniata Valley at a composure buster if they didn’t handle the intensity of the crowd well.
As the fourth quarter started off, Bellwood took their first lead of the half on a Hatch steal and lay-up, 38-37 with 7:34 to go in the game. The Lady Hornets were nothing to mess with as they came back and scored the next four points going back on top 41-38.
The game swung back and forth, but as the Lady Hornets seemed to try and pull away with a 44-42 lead, Stephanie Hatch nailed a three pointer to take a 45-44 lead with 3:50 to go in the game.
The crowd went crazy seeing the Lady Blue Devils on top of the top ranked Lady Hornets with just under four minutes to go in the game.
“I thought the fourth quarter could have went either way,” Lovrich said. “Juniata Valley forced a couple of key turnovers there and made some fast break lay-ups. Whenever the game is close, every possession matters when it’s going back and forth like that. We just have to find ways to win basketball games when it comes to that.”
As the game wound to its ending, Bellwood would score just two more points from Jenna Ralston as Juniata Valley finished off the Lady Blue Devils on a 10-2 run and continued their toughness on the road against Bellwood.
Final score read 54-47 for the Juniata Valley Lady Hornets as they improve to 20-3 on the season.
“I think we’ve played well against a lot of great teams this year,” Lovrich said. “You look at our schedule and you see Claysburg, Penns Valley and Juniata Valley, and we play a lot of good teams and have been so close in these games. One of these days we’re going to go up over the top and win one of these.”
With the loss, Bellwood drops to 9-13, losing a tough thriller at home on Senior Night to Juniata Valley. Stephanie Hatch and Lauren Carter printed identical statistics as they both recorded 11 points and 12 rebounds a piece, each scoring double-double’s in the loss Thursday night. Carter set a new B-A girls record for rebounds in a season and now has 279. The old record of 270 was held by Randy Baker, who had 31 games to set the previous mark during the 1998-99 season. Carter and the Lady Blue Devils have played 22 games with two regular season games remaining.
Juniata Valley improves to 20-3 behind 21 points from Claudia McDowell who put on a one girl wrecking crew for the Lady Hornets. Bellwood-Antis contained everyone but McDowell, but she made every shot count which kept the Lady Hornets on top.
Juniata Valley 54 Bellwood-Antis 47
Juniata Valley – McDowell 8 2-2 21, Mowrer 4 1-4 10, Walters 2 0-0 4, Lane 1 4-7 6, Reed 3 0-0 6, Borst 3 0-1 7. Totals 21 7-14 54.
Bellwood-Antis – Claar 3 0-0 6, Hatch 5 0-0 11, Ralston 3 0-0 6, Sinisi 3 0-0 6, Carter 4 3-3 11, Smith 2 2-5 7. Totals 20 5-8 47.
Score by Quarters
Juniata Valley 8 17 12 17 – 54
Bellwood-Antis 9 11 16 11 – 47
Three point goals: Juniata Valley-5 (McDowell-3, Mower, Borst).
Bellwood-Antis-2 (Hatch, Smith).
Lady Blue Devils can’t stop Valley fast breaks
Juniata Valley and Bellwood was tied after the first quarter at nine all. Bellwood played their guts out to start the game, but Juniata Valley’s defense was too much to handle as they would only score 10 more points the entire game.
Juniata Valley outscored Bellwood 25-4 in the second half as they went on to win big, 48-19.
Chelsea Boyd led Lady Hornets with 10 points in their win over the Lady Blue Devils.
Chelsea Young scored seven points including a three point field goal for Bellwood.
