Bellwood-Antis took West Branch to the limit on Friday night on the West Branch home court. The Blue Devils began slowly falling behind 8-2, but regrouped in the second and third quarters to take a six-point lead into the fourth quarter.
West Branch rallied in the fourth to force the game into overtime and then outscored Bellwood-Antis in the four-minute OT 13-5 to triumph 67-59. The Warriors outscored B-A 27-13 (fourth quarter and overtime period) after Bellwood-Antis took a 46-40 lead after three periods.
For all but the very end of the opening period, B-A senior Paul Greiner was the only Blue Devil on the scoreboard. Greiner put in four foul shots and a basket to single-handedly keep the Bellwood boys close. Dan Clark sunk three of baskets, and the Coble brothers, Paul and Sean each had one before Brandon Boone got three points the old-fashioned way on a basket and foul shot to cut the west Branch lead to 12-9 at the end of one quarter.
Sean Coble, who led all scorers with 27 points, pumped in a pair of buckets to start the second period, sandwiched around a rebound and putback by B-A senior Mike Blazier, his only score of the ballgame. Aaron Bell followed with back-to-back treys and Greiner added another free throw to give the Blue Devils their first lead 19-17, with 3:55 to play in the opening half.
Nik Bisko pushed West Branch into a 20-19 lead when he buried a trey, but Blue Devil sophomore Evan Hughes brought B-A back with a fouls shot and two straight short-range baskets into a 24-20 lead.
The two schools then traded buckets back and forth with Greiner hitting two for Bellwood-Antis and Sean Coble two for the Warriors. With the score tied, Boone again provided the final answer of the period by sinking two foul shots to give the Blue Devils a 30-28 margin at halftime.
Paul Coble tied the score to begin the third quarter and each team went on a short run, with Bellwood-Antis getting five points to West Branch’s four to emerge the two flurries with 35-34 advantage. The Blue Devils Tyler McClellan tossed in two three-pointers and assisted Aaron Bell on a two-pointer as the Blue Devils to move B-A into a 43-34 lead. Sean Coble hit a basket and Greiner came right back with a trey to give the Blue Devils their biggest lead of the night 46-36.
“On their home floor, West Branch got the crowd behind them,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Tim Keech. “I was really feeling pretty good. I though we got a nice lead there and took the crowd out of it. But They kept inching back into it. You turn around and it’s tied and their student section is going bananas. We still had the chance coming down at the end of the game. As well as they came back, we got the ball down for a shot at the end of the game. It just didn’t fall.”
At that point however, West Branch (5-1 in the second cycle of the Juniata Valley League and 18-2 overall) began their comeback. Sean Coble sunk the final two buckets of the quarter to close the Warriors deficit to 46-40.
A trey by McClellan was Bellwood’s only score of the early portion of the fourth quarter, while West Branch got two straight buckets from Bisko and one each by Sean Coble and Coty Peters to edge to within one of the Blue Devils 49-48. Suddenly, it was a ballgame.
Bell tossed in two foul shots and Greiner added a basket to push the B-A lead back up to 53-48. Another free throw by Greiner was all the scoring for the Blue devils however, while Sean Coble hit two buckets and Bisko one to tie the game 54-54 at the end of regulation.
In the four-minute overtime, West Branch put the Blue Devils on the defensive by scoring the first six points. Peters opened the scoring with a basket and Clark connected for two in a row to give the Warriors a 60-54 advantage.
Bellwood-Antis was forced to foul to try to get the ball and West Branch added seven free throws during the overtime, including four straight by Paul Coble and two by Sean Coble. The Blue Devils only points in the overtime were two foul shots by Greiner, one free throw by McClellan and a basket from Bell.
“I though Evan Hughes played a great game, coming off the bench without a whole lot of experience,” said Keech. “He got a late start this year because of mono and the end of the football season. I think he has come on stronger as the year has progressed. I think has gotten more comfortable with what we are trying to do. He’s a strong kid who’s not afraid to go in there and bang the boards and bring down some key rebounds for us.”
Hughes brought the Blue Devils back late in the second quarter and played a tough game rebounding, ending with five points and six rebounds off the bench. Paul Greiner led B-A with 22 points and seven boards. Tyler McClellan and Aaron Bell scored 13 and 12 points respectively. McClellan had five rebounds and Bell had six boards. Greiner Bell, and McClellan each had three assists.
“Against West Branch, you have to get on the boards,” said Keech. “They are going to put the ball up, they are athletic, they run some motion. They run a lot of double screens to get people open and they shoot some long shots. My biggest concern I think was sometimes on free throws, we didn’t box out very well. We gave up a couple offensive rebounds where they missed and instead of us getting the ball and coming this way, they got the ball and set something else up.”
Bellwood-Antis (3-3 in the JVLand 8-11) overall) will travel to Southern huntingdon on Tuesday. There will be no junior varsity game. The varsity contest will begin at 7 p.m.
Junior varsity
The junior varsity game was every bit as close as the varsity contest.
The Bellwood-Antis jayvees squeezed out leads of 22-21 at halftime and 31-29 at the end of three quarters, before the West Branch came on at the end to win a 42-37 decision.
Blaze Winterstein led the Blue Devils with 11 points and Evan Hughes added eight points. Paul Christner contributed four rebounds, three assists and had three steals.
Chris Dotts had 17 points for West Branch and Grady Luzier scored 12 points.
West Branch 67 Bellwood-Antis 59 OT
Bellwood-Antis – McClellan 4 1-3 13, Bell 4 2-2 12, Greiner 7 7-9 22, Blazier 1 0-0 2, Christner 0 0-0 0, Boone 1 3-3 5, Edmiston 0 0-2 0, Winterstein 0 0-0 0, Hughes 2 1-2 5. TOTALS 19 14-21 59.
West Branch – S. Coble 11 4-4 27, P. Coble 3 4-4 10, Clark 7 3-4 18, Bisko 3 0-0 6, McCracken 1 0-2 2, Peters 2 0-0 4, Husted 0 0-0 0, Luzier 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 27 11-14 67.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 9 21 16 8 5 – 59
West Branch 12 16 12 14 13 – 67
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 7 (McClellan 4, Bell 2, Greiner 1).
West Branch 2 S. Coble 1, Bisko 1).
