Bellwood-Antis traveled to Mount Union for a Juniata Valley League boys basketball game on Monday night where the Trojans came out as hot as the temperature in their gym and just kept on going. Mount Union showed a lot of the reasons Bellwood-Antis coach Tim Keech expressed the opinion that they are the best team in the league, despite not winning the first cycle. MU outscored the Blue Devils 26-10 in the opening quarter to take control early, then continued to pour it on, outscoring Bellwood-Antis in all four quarters for an 82-45 humbling.
The Trojans and Blue Devils traded treys right off the bat and it seemed like it might be a battle of two super heavyweights going at each other for the full 32 minutes. That was not to be the case however. After a pair of three-pointers by Shawn Weiand kept the score close (7-6 Mount Union), Mount Union exploded for a 19-4 run with the Blue Devils only points coming on baskets by junior Paul Greiner on consecutive trips downcourt that cut the Trojan lead to 15-10. The hosts then ran off the final 10 points of the quarter.
“We knew coming down, even though they weren’t going to win the first cycle, I thought that this was the best team in the league,” explained coach Keech. “They have three starters back from a team that played at St. Francis last year (Playing into the district semifinals) and we knew they were going to be good.”
Mark DelGrosso nailed a trey and Tyler McClellan connected on a drive to narrow the score a bit to 26-15. That was only a brief burst however that was over and done with, while Mount Union scored 12 straight points until Aaron Bell broke the string with a basket, but the Trojans ended the half with six more points to take a 44-17 lead into the locker room at the half.
The second half didn’t go much better for Bellwood-Antis. Mount Union scored the first four points to start the mercy clock running with a 30-point lead 47-17.
Greiner fired in a three-pointer and Weiand and DelGrosso each added a bucket to get the score deficit under 30 at 52-24, but Mount Union scored nine straight before a Weiand short jumper and long three-pointer, and then added five more before baskets by Mike Blazier and Weiand ended the third quarter with the Trojans firmly in command 66-33.
Mount Union opened the fourth quarter by running off 10 straight point before Pat McCracken canned a trey to cut the score to 76-39. Tyler McClellan added a trey and a layup at the buzzer and Greiner hit one of two free throws to complete the scoring for B-A.
Weiand scored 18 points to lead the Blue Devils. Greiner and McClellan each added seven points and Mark DelGrosso had five points and five assists.
“My biggest thing is, I can handle losing a game. That doesn’t bother me in the least bit,” said Keech. “But I think the way we lost tonight really has me disheartened. Mount Union to their credit, smelled it. They knew they could put up a big number on these kids. We rolled over and that bothers me more than anything. We talked in the pregame about pride, about having pride and what it means to wear that jersey, competing for all 32 minutes of the game. We didn’t do that. We let them do whatever they wanted to. We didn’t communicate on defense. We didn’t make hard cuts when we had the ball. Mount Union, to their credit stepped it up. That’s what good teams are going to do. I think we are a good team and have improved over the year, but we can’t play basketball like that and think we are going to be successful.”
Justin Price had a game-high 21 points for Mount Union, Isaiah Helton had 16 and Danny Puchalla added 15.
Game notes: Mount Union seldom gave the Blue Devils more than one look at the basket, outrebounding B-A 19-5….There were a total of 17 three-pointers-The Trojans had nine and Bellwood-Antis had eight….Mount Union used every player on the bench and nine different players scored….Mount Union is the only team to score more than 70 points against B-A this year….Bellwood-Antis (4-10) travels to Penns Valley on Wednesday.
Mount Union 83 Bellwood-Antis 45
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Bell 1 0-0 2, McClellan 3 0-0 7, Weiand 7 0-2 18, M. DelGrosso 2 0-0 5, Greiner 3 0-0 7, Plummer 0 0-0 0, Blazier 1 0-0 2, Edmiston 0 0-0 0, McCracken 1 0-0 3, Brunner 0 1-2 1, Boone 0 0-0 0, T. DelGrosso 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 1-4 45.
MOUNT UNION – Helton 7 0-0 16, Price 9 0-0 21, Puchalla 6 2-2 15, Zook 4 0-0 9, Morgan 2 1-3 5, Barger 2 0-0 4, McClain 0 0-0 0, Martinez 2 0-0 5, Pollicino 1 0-0 2, Dugway 2 0-0 5, Brown 0 0-0 0, McClure 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 35 3-5 82.
Score by Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 10 7 16 12 – 45
Mount Union 26 18 22 16 – 82
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 8 (Weiand 4, McClellan 1, M. DelGrosso 1, Greiner 1, McCracken 1)
Mount Union 9 (Price 3, Helton 2, Puchalla 1, Zook 1, Martinez 1, Dugway 1).
