The Bellwood Antis Boys Basketball has been a second half team for most of the season. For one reason or another, the team always seems to start out a bit sluggish, but when the third and fourth quarters come they turn up the heat on their opponents. B-A coach Tim Keech stressed four quarters tonight. He wanted his team to come out from the start and establish themselves, and the team did just that as they blasted the Vikings of Glendale 76-36 last night.
“We have been letting teams hang around in the first half and then waiting until the second half to really start playing,” said Keech. “Tonight, we did a great job of being ready to play.”
Bellwood-Antis jumped out to a 10-2 first quarter lead before the Vikings even knew what hit them. BA seniors Ricky Shannon and Ryan Myers were hot in the first quarter with Shannon netting 10 and Myers scoring eight in the stanza. Bellwood’s suffocating defense held Glendale to only four points in the quarter and Bellwood had a commanding 24-4 lead after one.
B-A’s hot shooting continued in the second quarter as they added 18 points to their total. Glendale continued to struggle, and they found themselves down at the half by a score of 42-14.
Bellwood-Antis shot an incredible 81 percent from the field in the first half on 18 of 22 shooting. It seemed no matter who took the shot for the Blue Devils, it was going to hit nothing but net.
“I told the kids at halftime that we can’t be satisfied with the first half,” Keech noted. “We wanted to put four solid quarter together, and I told them if they let up then Glendale would get right back in it.”
Letting up was something the Blue Devils were definitely not going to do. Known as a second half team, B-A came out on fire again, and the lead was in the 30’s before Glendale was forced to call a quick timeout to regroup. Bellwood-Antis put up 24 more points in the quarter compared to Glendale’s 11. The third ended with the score 66-25 in favor of Bellwood.
The rout was on at this point, and the B-A reserves played just about all of the fourth quarter. Bellwood-Antis once again received a balanced attack as 11 of the 12 Blue Devils on the roster put points on the scoreboard. As the final horn sounded, Bellwood left Glendale with a 76-36 victory and upped their record to 17-1.
Ryan Myers led the Blue Devil attack with 22 points. Ricky Shannon had 15 on the evening, and Steve Crider and Danny Smith each chipped in with eight. Glendale was led by Shawn Krestar who had 13 points.
Glendale got the better of BA’s JV team as they defeated them by nine points, 60-51. Paul Greiner led the Blue Devil Jayvees with 17 points.
Bellwood-Antis returns to action on Saturday night as they travel to Huntingdon Area High School to meet the Trojans of Mt. Union. This game starts at 7 and is for the Juniata Valley League First Cycle Championship.
Bellwood-Antis 76 Glendale 36
BELLWOOD: (76) Shannon 6 0-0 15, Smith 3 0-0 8, Mattern 1 0-0 3, Crider 4 0-0 8, Weiand 1 0-0 2, Hughes 2 0-0 5, Greiner 2 0-0 4, Carlson 1 0-0 2, Myers 11 0-0 22, Rogers 2 1-2 5, DelGrosso 0 0-0 0, Bell 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 33 1-2 76
GLENDALE (36) Shawn Krestar 5 2-2 13, Kaufmann 2 0-0 5, Laing 1 0-0 2, Peoples 3 1-2 7, Lyons 0 3-4 3, Yeckley 1 0-0 2, D’Angeli 1 0-0 2, Shane Krestar 0 0-0 0, Morrison 0 2-2 2, Yingling 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 8-10 36.
Score By Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 24 18 24 10 – 76
Glendale 4 10 11 11 – 36
Three-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 5 (Smith 2, Shannon 2, Mattern), Glendale 2 (Shawn Krester 1, Kaufmann 1)
