Every time the Lady Blue Devils worked hard and was able to pull even, or take the lead, the Juniata Valley girls had an answer.
After spotting Bellwood-Antis an 18-13 lead after one period, the Lady Hornets met every B-A challenge and increased their own lead in running their record to 11-1 with a 56-48 victory over the Lady Blue Devils at Bellwood, on Wednesday night.
Juniata Valley had a run of at least five unanswered points in each quarter of the contest. Only in the opening period were the Lady Blue Devils able to counter it.
Katie Gardner, free of the pressure of scoring 1,000 points after she accomplished that feat on Monday, kept the B-A girls ahead by pouring in 12 points and collecting four rebounds in the first quarter.
Gardner opened the scoring with a bucket, but the Lady Hornets answered with five straight points for a quick 5-2 lead. Rachel Meredith’s basket cut the deficit to 5-4 and with 5:08 left, Gardner put her team into a 7-6 lead. After Katie grabbed an offensive board and stuck the ball back up for a 10-7 lead, Juniata Valley, behind a game-high 25 points from junior shooting guard Claudia McDowell, took an 11-10 advantage.
Gardner pulled down a rebound at the Devils’ end of the court, passed the ball out to Stephanie Hatch, who tossed it right back to Katie, who put in a left-handed hook shot to push Bellwood-Antis into the lead. Gardner then tossed in a basket on a fast break, from just inside the foul line. On the next possession, Gardner put up another short jumper for a bucket to finish off a fast break that give the Blue Devils a 16-13 lead. Apryl Swanson, probably the shortest player on the court, grabbed a rebound and put in her only basket of the game to complete an 18-13 first quarter for B-A.
Gardner, started the second quarter just as hot with a bucket to extend the lead back to 20-15, but Juniata Valley scored 11 straight points to give the Lady Hornets a 26-20 lead until Rachel Meredith broke the string with a basket to cut the B-A deficit to 26-22. Gardner and Meredith then each scored baskets to stay two points down, but the Hornets clamped down on defense to limit the Lady Blue Devils to eight-second quarter points and took a 29-26 lead at the half.
Gardner hit a basket and Steph Hatch scored her first points of the game after going scoreless in the first half to slice the Juniata Valley lead to 31-30. Trista Sprankle, back in the starting lineup after missing several games due to injury, went coast-to-coast with the ball for two points after getting a steal to give Bellwood-Antis a one-point lead and Gardner added a basket to stretch the lead to 36-33.
Gardner was able to score just 12 points over the final three quarters after getting 12 points in the opening stanza.
“We had trouble getting the ball to Katie,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach Nick Lovrich. “We needed to get the ball to her, but we forced some passes and their defense made it tough to get the ball into her.”
It would be the last time, B-A had the lead. Juniata Valley scored nine straight points to move into a 42-36 lead, until Ashley Edevane fired in a trey to slice the lead to 46-39 and Gardner hit a shot to bring the Lady Blue Devils to within a 46-41 margin at the end of three quarters.
Stephanie Hatch added a three-pointer to get B-A to within one points, but The Lady Hornets, with McDowell leading the way, pulled into a 53-44 lead by scoring seven straight points before Edevane countered with a basket. Ashley added another bucket to get B-A to 53-48, but Juniata Valley scored the final three points.
“We worked hard to get back even and then they would go on a run,” said an unhappy coach Lovrich. “We would have a couple turnovers and that hurt us. It was one of those games where it wasn’t because we didn’t play hard. Every kid that played tonight played their hearts out. That is what they are supposed to do. The little mistakes catch up to you after a while. Juniata Valley capitalized on them. We would make a turnover and Juniata Valley would go down and score a layup. They have a lot of good players and they are young. Claudia McDowell scored 25 points, did a good job running their offense and was aggressive on defense.”
Gardner led B-A with 24 points and added three blocked shots and six rebounds. Steph Hatch scored only five points, but her presence known by blocking siz shots and pulling down eight rebounds. Ashlewy edevane scored nine points and added four rebounds.
The Lady Blue Devils (8-4) travel to Williamsburg on Friday with the junior varsity game set for 6 p.m. and the varsity for 7:30.
Junior Varsity
The Lady Blue Devil junior varsity waged a terific battle with their counterparts from Juniata Valley before pulling out a crowd-pleasing 35-34 triumph to improve their record to 2-7.
Jenna Ralston led B-A with 11 points and Allison Sinisi added 10 points. Jamie Smith pulled down nine rebounds and Lauren Carter added eight.
Brittany Borst had a game-high 13 points for the Juniata valley Jayvees.
Juniata Valley 56 Bellwood-Antis 48
JUNIATA VALLEY – Heaster 2 0-0 4, Curley 6 0-0 12, Mowrer 1 1-2 3, McDowell 10 5-7 25, Reed 3 1-4 7, Walters 1 -12 3, Lane 1 0-0 2, Gildea 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 24 8-15 56.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Edevane 4 0-0 9, Sprankle 1 0-0 2, Hatch 2 0-1 5, Gardner 12 0-0 24, Meredith 3 0-0 6, Erickson 0 0-0 0, Swanson 1 0-0 2, Ridgeway 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 0-1 48.
Score by Quarters
Juniata Valley 13 16 20 10 – 56
Bellwood-Antis 18 8 15 7 – 48
Three point goals: Juniata Valley None.
Bellwood-Antis 2 (Edevane 1. Hatch 1).
