Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Bellwood-Antis/Glendale boys basketball game had all the look of a real barn-burner, a game that might end 100-99 with the last team getting the ball pulling out the victory.
The teams took turns trading the lead back and forth for most of three quarters before one long scoring drought by the Blue Devils turned the game into a cat-and-mouse game instead, with Bellwood-Antis never quite able to catch up to the Vikings in this battle to remain on top in the second cycle of the Juniata Valley League. Glendale did all the scoring over a six-minute time capsule to claim the 65-54 triumph to remain undefeated (3-0) in JVL action.
The two schools jockeyed for the lead throughout the first quarter until Tyler McClellan pumped in back-to-back three pointers to give the Blue Devils a 14-12 lead. Chris Edmiston added a basket on a putback for a 16-12 advantage and then Aaron Bell hit a two-pointer and Tony DelGrosso knocked in two free throws to keep the Blue Devils’ advantage at four (20-16) at the end of the first quarter.
McClellan fired up another trey to begin the second quarter, to give the Blue Devils their biggest lead of the game, 23-16. Glendale senior Mark Lyons hit a trey and two-pointer to slice the B-A lead to 23-21 however, and Glendale kept coming back to keep the score close everytime Bellwood-Antis tried to lengthen their advantage.
Blaze Winterstein and McClellan connected for baskets to run the score back out to 27-21, only to have a Mark Yeckley basket and Shane Krestar rebound and bucket pull the Vikings to within one again 27-26. B-A would get outscored 16-13 in the period, but still managed to go into the locker room at the half up by one, 33-32.
Glendale kept up the pressure. Krestar hit his only trey of the evening to get Glendale a 35-33 lead, afterwhich a Paul Greiner putback and a three by Adam DeArmitt sent the Blue Devils into a 38-34 advantage.
Lyons pounded in a trey and a Bill Ball basket gave Glendale a 39-38 lead. McClellan fired in a three-pointer and Aaron Bell came down the court on the Blue Devils next possession and knocked down a trey of his own. One final bucket by McClellan increased the B-A lead to 46-39 with 3:05 left in the third quarter.
Suddenly it turned into a football game, with the officials pretty much allowing Glendale to roughhouse without regard to calling fouls. Glendale went on a run that didn’t end until the Vikings had scored the equivalent of two touchdowns and two PATs. Fourteen unanswered points poured through the Glendale net.
Tyler Noel started the binge with a bucket and Lyons took the game in hand to score three straight baskets, before teammate Yeckley ended the quarter with a trey for a 50-46 Glendale lead.
It got worse. Glendale scored the first three points of the fourth quarter on one foul shot each by Yeckley, Krestar and Lyons to complete a 14-0 run. Greiner stopped the streak at the 4:59 mark of the final quarter with a short jumper from in front of the basket. Bellwood-Antis had gone 6:06 on the clock between scores.
“It was funny, we talked about it at halftime,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Tim Keech. “I said the reason I thought we were doing so well was because we were controlling the game. Every time Glendale made a run, we were able to come right back and put some points on the board. I told the kids at halftime about a story coach (assistant Bernie) Jubeck told, who had heard the story from one of his coaches that when you are on the road like that, listen for the quiet. Because if you hear the quiet, the other team’s not doing anything. I thought we came out in the third quarter and built a nice little lead and I thought we had them. We had everybody quieted down. Then they went on that run, we weren’t able to convert and I think the more they scored, the more we pressed. We got in a kind of a hurry and decided to rush some things.
“Once they got that momentum, give them credit, Glendale held the lead.”
Krestar added a bucket and four foul shots, Yeckley a pair of free throws and Richie Ball a basket down the remainder of the game to keep Glendale in front.
Brandon Boone, Greiner and Winterstein hit baskets for the Blue Devils, but B-A was unable to get any closer.
“It’s one game,” explained Keech. “Our kids are going to bounce back, starting with tomorrow night. We go on the road again. They are good kids and I was proud of the way they bounced back after the way we played last night at Everett. We just didn’t play well, we went out and didn’t get the job done. For these kids to bounce back after an effort like that and as banged up as we are was something. Paul Greiner was in the hospital getting IVs on Sunday night, Paul Christner is out with a turned ankle, Tyler McClellan’s still not feeling 100 percent.
“That’s not an excuse, coming down the stretch in the third and fourth quarters, Glendale just outplayed us. But I am extremely proud of our effort.”
McClellan led the Blue Devils with 18 points and Bell added 10 points. Greiner had six points and nine rebounds.
Lyons had 27 points for Glendale and Yeckley added 18 and Krestar had 15 points and 19 rebounds.
Junior varsity
The Glendale junior varsity defeated the Bellwood-Antis Jayvees 36-27 in the preliminary contest.
Sam Yingling led Glendale with 16 points. Yingling’s father is Gene Yingling who teaches at Bellwood-Antis and was the Blue Devils’ long-time boys basketball coach prior to Keech, who was Yingling’s assistant.
Eric McCrum led the B-A junior varsity with eight points, followed by Brandon Boone with seven and Evan Hughes with six points.
Bellwood-Antis (7-8 overall, 2-1 in the JVL second cycle) travels to Moshannon Valley to make up a game with the Black Knights postponed from the first week in January tonight and then is on the road again on Friday for a game at Juniata Valley. Both nights start off with a junior varsity game at 6 p.m. and varsity at 7:30.
Glendale 65 Bellwood-Antis 54
Bellwood-Antis – McClellan 7 0-0 18, Bell 4 0-0 10, DeArmitt 1 0-0 3, Greiner 3 0-0 6, Blazier 0 0-0 0, Boone 1 0-0 2, Edmiston 1 0-0 2, DelGrosso 1 4-6 6, Winterstein 3 0-1 7, Hughes 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 4-7 54.
Glendale – Lyons 11 3-6 27, Yeckley 4 8-10 18, R. Ball 2 0-0 4, Noel 0 0-0 0, Krestar 4 7-8 15, B. Ball 1 0-0 2, Thomas 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 22 18-24 65.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 20 33 15 8 – 54.
Glendale 16 16 18 15 – 65.
Three point goals; Bellwood-Antis 8 McClellan 4, Bell 2, DeArmitt 1, Winterstein 1).
Glendale 4 Lyons 2, Yeckley 2).

By Rick