The first time the Bellwood-Antis and Moshannon Valley Boys Basketball teams met in Bellwood, the result was a Blue Devil win by about 20 points. Going to Amesville, however, the Blue Devils knew the game would be a lot tougher. It turned out to be even tougher than the Blue Devils bargained for, and they were very fortunate to come away with the 54-51 victory.
Coming off a loss to Mount Union, Bellwood-Antis was looking to refocus heading into the playoffs. After Mo Valley, B-A has three regular season games left before the District Six Playoffs open up.
Bellwood took a 12-11 lead after one quarter of play. Blue Devil senior guard Steve Crider netted six of his 12 points in the first quarter to help the Blue Devils. Forward Ryan Myers had four in the quarter. B-A tried a full court man to man press that proved ineffective as the Knights got numerous easy layups.
Bellwood-Antis outscored the Knights 15-10 in the second quarter en route to a six point halftime lead. The Knights were hanging around the entire game thanks to their post players. Moshannon Valley forward Steve Holencik scored a game high 23 points, and fellow forward Luke Martin torched the Blue Devils for 12.
The Blue Devils did not look like themselves as the senior dominated team also committed quite a few turnovers throughout the game. Bellwood-Antis held a 27-21 advantage going into the locker room, and the team seemed to struggle to find any sort of consistency.
“I really don’t know what it was,” said Blue Devil coach Tim Keech. “We just didn’t play well at all tonight.”
Moshannon Valley continued to hang around in the second half, and they found themselves down by only seven at the end of the third quarter. Bellwood-Antis came out in the second half and switched to a zone press and a 1-3-1 matchup zone. The Black Knights would have none of it, as they torched the zone with three point sharpshooting. B-A quickly returned to man to man.
The fourth quarter saw the Knights come as close as two points, however, they couldn’t quite get over the hump. Blue Devil forward Nathan Carlson came up big in the fourth quarter scoring seven of his 14 points in the final four minutes to help B-A grind out the win.
With the score 53-51, Mo Valley brought the ball down the floor and cleared out for Holencik. He drove into Myers, used a spin move that knocked Myers over, and was called for the offensive foul with only six seconds to go in the game. Bellwood-Antis got the ball into Ricky Shannon who was immediately fouled with only three seconds left to play. He made the first free throw giving the Blue Devils a 54-51 lead. He missed the second, and the Knights’ Matt Belella pulled the rebound and heaved a shot from the opposite foul line that nearly banked in.
Myers led the Blue Devils with 18 points, Carlson had 14, and Crider netted 12. Holencik was the game’s high scorer with 23 for the Black Knights.
Bellwood-Antis had a bit of bad luck as Sophomore Paul Greiner, a JV player who sees some Varsity action, suffered a concussion during the JV game. Blue Devil senior reserve Matt Rogers broke his ankle during the Varsity game on a rebound attempt.
Bellwood-Antis returns to action on Wednesday as they host the Blue Pirates of Williamsburg. The Blue Devils will honor their eight seniors prior to the game for Senior Night Ceremonies. JV tip is at 6 with Varsity at 7:30.
Moshannon Valley knocked off the B-A Junior Varsity team by a score of 48-35. Mike Baughman led Mo Valley with 15 points, and Paul Greiner led BA with 12. The Blue Devil dropped to 7-12 on the year.
Bellwood-Antis 54 Moshannon Valley 51
BELLWOOD (54) Shannon 2 1-2 5, Smith 2 0-0 5, Mattern 0 0-0 0, Crider 6 0-1 12, Weiand 0 0-0 0, Hughes 0 0-0 0, Myers 7 4-5 18, Carlson 6 1-2 14, Rogers 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 6-10 – 54
MO VALLEY (51) Ph. Keith 1 0-0 3, Holencik 11 1-1 23, Stodart 3 0-0 9, Martin 6 0-2 12, Mills 2 0-0 4, Kephart 0 0-0 0, Belella 0 0-0 0 P. J. Keith 0 0-0 0, Esposti 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 1-3 – 51
Score By Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 12 15 17 10 – 54
Moshannon Valley 11 10 16 14 – 51
Three-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 2 (Smith 1, Carlson 1); Moshannon Valley 4 (Stodart 3, Ph. Keith 1)
