Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Bellwood-Antis came into their game with the Juniata Valley Hornets looking to improve it’s 7-9 record. B-A is coming off a tough one point at Mo Valley. Friday nights game completed a seven game stretch in only ten days. It was also Bellwood’s fourth game of the week.
The first basket of the game was scored by Lightner of Juniata Valley with 6:11 to go in the quarter. The Hornets would jump out on top early in this one going up 8-2 after Borst gets a steal and took it coast to coast for the easy lay-up. Paul Greiner tried to get the Devils back into the game with a three pointer to make it 8-5 with 4:56 to go in the first. Aaron Bell also dropped in a three ball to tie the score at 8-8 and helped B-A to get some momentum rolling, but Juniata Valley went on a 4-0 run to end the quarter with a 12-8 lead.
The second quarter scoring started with Adam DeArmitt getting fouled on a three point attempt and he converted on two of the three shots. Greiner hit his second three pointer of the game with 6:17 to play and made the score 16-13 in favor of the Hornets. Aaron Bell put in a pair of foul shots to give the Devils their first and only lead of the night, 17-16 with 5:02 until the half. B-A would build a lead and get up 21-16, but Borst dialed long distance to make it a two point game, 21-19, with 4:20 to go in the half. The Hornets would go on a run and regain the lead behind the scoring tandem of Borst and Lightner. 30 seconds to go before the half when things turned a little ugly. Mike Blaizer was called for a foul and Lightner got in his face to let him know about it. Lightner was given a technical foul, but he made his two foul shots. Aaron Bell shot the two technicals for B-A, but missed both. The score at that time was 28-23, but Bellwood would get one more basket before time ran out to make the score at the half, 28-25.
B-A’s shooting from the field in the first half was an average day considering the hot streaks they’ve been on lately. 7-22 is not bad, but not exactly what the Devils wanted in this game against a good three point shooting team like Juniata Valley. Although B-A’s field goal percentage was low, their foul shooting was excellent in the first half going 8-11. In B-A’s first match-up with the Hornets, the Devils came out winners 59-52. In that game Bellwood was losing 26-22 at the half and the Devils were looking for another second half come back.
Third quarter scoring opened up with Tyler McClellan getting a nice basket to get B-A into the game. Adam DeArmitt added one free throw to tie the score at 28-28 with 6:13 to go in the quarter. Although B-A tied up the game, Juniata Valley would go on a huge run to get up big in this quarter. Borst, Boyd, and Lightner lead the charge for the Hornets added three point balls and a deep two point shot from Lightner. The Hornets would get up by 13 points by the end of the quarter and really get their home crowd into the game. The score at the end of the third quarter, 50-37 with the Hornets jumping out on top.
Paul Greiner would open up fourth quarter scoring with an easy basket. Greiner’s basket started a 6-0 run by the Devils which forced Juniata Valley to burn a timeout. The Hornets would let B-A get back into the game at the beginning of the quarter, but took over in the second part of the quarter only allowing B-A to get within ten points, but no closer. Lightner would finish off the game with four straight free throws and help Juniata Valley win 60-47 over the Blue Devils of Bellwood-Antis.The JV team didn’t have any better luck as they lost 51-44. B-A’s JV’s beat the Hornets in their first matchup of the year, 38-36, but the Hornets avenge the loss with a solid win at home.                                
  Juniata Valley 64 Bellwood-Antis 50
JUNIATA VALLEY – Lightner 8 8-11 23, Borst 6 1-1 16, Gildea 1 2-2 4, Boyd 2 2-2 7, Hall 3 2-2 8, Devore 1 0-0 2, Burkey 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 15-18 64.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – McClellan 4 3-4 11, Bell 3 3-6 9, DeArmitt 0 3-5 3, Greiner 6 4-4 18, Blazier 1 0-0 2, Christner 1 0-0 3, Edmiston 0 1-2 1, Winterstein 0 2-4 2. TOTALS 15 16-25 50.
Score by Quarter
  1   2   3   4   – T
Juniata Valley    12  16  21  15 – 64
Bellwood-Antis   8   17  12  13 – 50
Three point goals: Juniata Valley 5(Borst 3, Lightner, Boyd)  Bellwood-Antis 4(Greiner 2, Bell, Christner)

By Rick