The Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devils were on a mission on Thursday evening at the B-A Senior High gym. Back on Dec. 17, the Lady Trojans had destroyed the Bellwood-Antis girls in the third quarter of their game 24-4 and gone on to win the game 55-37. Last night, it was a different ballgame. A well balanced offensive attack led by Lauren Carter with 22 points and 14 rebounds and Steph Hatch, who with 18 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds finished just two boards short of accomplishing a triple-double. Jenna Ralston scored nine points, Jamie Smith added seven points and Lindsey Claar had five points.
The defense with Hatch and Carter getting four steals each, held Mount Union to just 26 points over the first three quarters. The end result was a 63-47 B-A win, the Lady Blue Devils (8-8) second straight win, just the second time this season, the B-A girls have won that many in a row.
“We went down there (to Mount Union) and we lost,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Nick Lovrich, “ and the kids had something to prove. Our girls wanted to prove that we were better than they were. The kids came out with fire in their eyes-that’s what they need to do every game. We can’t have one of those things where we just flip a switch and get all fired up and ready to go. We have to keep that switch on the whole game, every night. Whenever you play a real good team like a Claysburg or Southern Huntingdon, you flip that switch down for a minute, there’s a run, you’re down 10.”
Carter opened the game with a basket to give Bellwood-Antis a 2-0 lead, but Mount Union came back on a bucket by Martina Kurtz and a trey from Mallory Corbin to give the Lady Trojans a 5-2 lead. That was the final time in the contest that Mount Union would hold the advantage. Lindsey Claar hit a foul shot and Carter tied the game with a short jumper. Claar put the Blue Devils ahead 7-5 at the 3:46 mark of the opening quarter. Carter then popped in three successive short jumpers, all off assists from Hatch and Steph added a basket of her own to give Bellwood-Antis a 15-9 lead after one period.
Allison Sinisi scored her only basket of the game to open the second quarter and Carter hit a bucket on yet another assist from Hatch and then Steph fired up a three-pointer to stretch the B-A lead to 22-10 and force Mount Union to use a timeout.
It didn’t do much good. Hatch hit another trey, junior point Jamie Smith added one free throw, Hatch threw in a two-point field goal and Jenna Ralston got hot, with two regular baskets and a trey and Carter closed out the first half with a pair of foul shots for a 39-18 advantage going into the locker room.
Both Bellwood-Antis big girls started the third quarter with a basket and after a Brooke O’Donnell basket for Mount Union, Hatch and Carter scored again sandwiched around a Lady Trojan field goal. For the third straight quarter, the Lady Blue Devils piled up a scoring advantage, this time 12-8 to take a 51-26 lead into the final eight minutes.
Mount Union was finally able to put together an offense in the fourth quarter, when the B-A defense let up a little, but after the Lady Trojans had cut the lead to 55-42, largely on two treys by Corbin and another by Toyia Price, the Lady Blue Devils built the margin back up with four free throws by Smith and two by Carter, along with baskets by Claar and Hatch.
“We shot the ball really well tonight,” said Lovrich. “Our big girls have done that all year. Lauren finished her shots inside, that’s something that the more she plays, the better she will get. Steph took advantage of a lot of things. She looked to drive to the basket, where there are games she hasn’t. Today she was real aggressive with the basketball. That’s what she needs to do, to be that complete player.
“Jenna was on fire in the first half. We need her to hit some shots like she did, because whenever teams are collapsing down low on Lauren and Steph, whenever we kick it out she needs to hit those shots. Jamie stepped it up at the end. She made foul shots and that’s what you want your point guard to do whenever you are in a close game, to seal the game for you.”
There was no junior varsity contest. The Lady Trojans had just a total of 10 girls on their entire roster.
Mallory Corbin, who led all scorers in the first game with four treys and 26 points, for Mount Union, was held to just 10 points over the first three quarters, before finishing with 16. Toyia Price added 10 points.
Bellwood-Antis 63 Mount Union 47
Mount Union – Kurtz 1 1-2 3, Corbin 6 2-2 16, T. Price 4 1-3 10, O’Donnell 2 2-2 7, Eaton 4 1-2 9, House 0 0-0 0, C. price 1 0-0 0, Stewart 0 2-2 2, Green 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 9-13 47.
Bellwood-Antis – Claar 1 1-2 5, Hatch 8 0-0 18, Ralston 4 0-0 9, Sinisi 1 0-0 2, Carter 9 4-4 22, Smith 1 5-10 7, Hunter 0 0-0 0, Webb 0 0-0 0, Young 0 0-0 0, Riley 0 0-0 0, Parson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 25 10-16 63.
Score by Quarters
Mount Union 9 9 8 21 – 47.
Bellwood-Antis 15 24 12 12 – 63.
Three point goals: Mount Union 4 (Corbin 2, T. Price 1, O’Donnell 1).
Bellwood-Antis 3 (Hatch 2, Ralston 1).
