Tim Keech has been the head coach of the boys’ program at Bellwood Antis for the past three seasons now. Keech has never defeated the Rams of Penns Valley in his tenure as head coach, and last night in Spring Mills, the curse continued. In an ugly game that featured more defense that offense, Penns Valley pulled away to take the 48-38 victory.
“We just flat out got our butts kicked tonight,” said Keech after the game. “We didn’t come out ready to play, and it showed.”
Penns Valley jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead behind a three-point field goal from Evan Marshall and two Carl Anderson buckets inside. Bellwood-Antis fought back and would tie the game at seven before eventually ending the first quarter down only by two points.
The Rams defense smothered Bellwood throughout the first half, and B-A only scored seven points in the second quarter. Penns Valley scored 14 points in the quarter. Twelve of the Rams’ second stanza points were courtesy of Anderson, who netted a game high 26 points for Penns Valley. The Blue devils found themselves down 25-16 at the half.
“We were down nine against them at halftime when we played them at our place,” said Keech. “We just had to try to chip away at the lead.”
Bellwood came out firing, and in the blink of an eye it was 27-21 Penns Valley as Bellwood-Antis cut the lead to only six. But that was about as close as the Blue Devils would get. A combination of Penns Valley’s blanketing defense, Bellwood’s inability to knock down shots, and B-A’s poor foul shooting resulted in the season low point total of 38.
Bellwood’s Ryan Myers led the Blue Devils with 16 points, and Steve Crider chipped in with 12. The two Blue Devil captains accounted for 28 of BA’s 38 points, however, both struggled throughout the game. It also didn’t help matters that BA was 4-10 from the free throw line as they missed some big free throws down the stretch.
Penns Valley only had four players score in the game, and Carl Anderson was the only Ram to hit double figures with 26. Nate Kerstetter and Curtis Shulman each had nine. Bellwood-Antis saw only five players in the scoring column. Nate Carlson was the next leading scorer for the Blue Devils after Myers and Crider with five points.
Bellwood-Antis falls to 20-4, while the Penns Valley Rams increase their mark to 16-8.
Bellwood-Antis plays its last regular season game Wednesday when they travel to Everett. Junior Varsity tip is at 6 p.m. with Varsity following at 7:30.
The Bellwood-Antis Junior Varsity lost 54-35 with Paul Greiner netting 14 points for the B-A JayVees.
Penns Valley 48 Bellwood-Antis 38
BELLWOOD (38) Shannon 1 0-0 2, Smith 1 0-1 3, Mattern 0 0-0 0, Crider 5 2-5 12, Weiand 0 0-0 0, Hughes 0 0-0 0, Greiner 0 0-0 0, Carlson 2 0-0 5, Myers 7 2-4 16. TOTALS 16 4-10 38.
PENNS VALLEY (48) Anderson 10 6-9 26, Marshall 1 1-3 4, Shulman 4 0-0 9, Kerstetter 3 3-4 9, Royer 0 0-0 0, Breon 0 0-0 0, Waltz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 10-16 48
Score By Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 9 7 7 15 – 38
Penns Valley 11 14 7 16 – 48
Three-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 2 (Smith 1, Carlson 1); Penns Valley 2 (Marshall 1, Shulman 1)
