Blue Devil basketball coach Tim Keech was looking for a breakthrough performance from his team. Tuesday night in Southern Huntingdon just might have been that night as he and his Blue Devils pummelled the young and overmatched Rockets of Southern 79-45.
Blue Devil big man Ryan Myers came through with another outstanding performance, netting 27 points, pulling seven boards, and going 11-11 from the charity stripe to set a new school record for free throw percentage in a single game. Senior guard Steve Crider chipped in with 16, including three 3 pointers. Nate Carlson netted 14 and Ricky Shannon hit for 12 to round out the four Blue Devils in double figures.
The Devils came out looking to start off strong, something they’ve failed to do in each of their first three games. Keech couldn’t have been happier as he saw his Devils race to an 11-4 lead, leading to a quick timeout by the Rockets. Bellwood never let up and used aggressive man to man defense to head to the lockerroom with a 41-18 lead.
Coach Keech stressed to his players at halftime that there cannot be any let up. His players obviously obliged as senior Dan Smith came out and canned a triple on the first play of the second half that would helped the Blue Devils reach leads of over 30 throughout the half.
Southern Huntingdon tried to vary defenses, using various different zone looks and also trying to play the Devils man to man. Bellwood would have none of it though as they shot a sizzling 46% from the field including 8 three point field goals as a team. Coach Keech was pleased with his team’s effort.
“We talked about coming out of the gates early and really jumping on them,” Keech said. “We finally started shooting the ball like I know we can, and when we get on a shooting roll like we did tonight, we can be very dangerous.”
The Blue Devils return to action on Friday night as Glendale comes to town. The following night the Marauders of BG come to the Bellwood gymnasium. JV action starts at 6 with Varsity action starting at 7:30 in both games.
Junior Varsity
The Bellwood-Antis JV team knocked off the Rockets of Southern Huntingdon by a score of 45-37. Aaron Bell led the squad with a team high 16 points.
The Devils played a solid game and were able to handle the man to man zone and full court press that the Rockets tried to apply. With the win, the JV team improved to 3-1 on the season.
Bellwood-Antis 79 Southern Huntingdon 45
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Shannon 5 1-2 12, Smith 1 2-3 5, Mattern 0 0-0 0, Crider 6 1-2 16, Weiand 0 0-0 0, Hughes 0 0-0 0, Greiner 1 1-2 3, Carlson 4 3-4 14, Myers 8 11-11 27, Rogers 0 0-0 0, DelGrosso 0 0-0 0, Plummer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 26 19-24 79.
SOUTHERN HUNTINGDON – Goshorn 3 2-4 8, D. Traxler 3 1-2 8, Doyle 1 0-0 2, Gracey 1 0-0 2, T. Brown 0 0-0 0, Hewitt 1 0-0 2, Kuhns 3 0-0 6, Yocum 3 0-0 7, K. Brown 0 0-0 0, C. Traxler 0 0-0 0, Speck 0 0-0 0, Neuder 2 0-0 4, Snyder 2 0-0 4, Carowick 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 3-6 45.
Three-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 8 (Crider 3, Carlson 3, Smith 1, Shannon 1); Southern Huntingdon 2 (D. Traxler 1, Yocum 1)
