The Bellwood-Antis boys basketball team were as cold as the Claysburg-Kimmel gymnasium for much of the game on Friday evening. The gym was fueled by body heat and what seemed like little else. Fortunately the Blue Devils warmed up.
Bellwood-Antis managed scoring margins in all but the third period in a 51-39 triumph that improved the Blue Devils record to 2-1.
“I think there were two things we did very poorly tonight,” explained B-A coach Tim Keech. “I don’t think we handled the ball well. We can handle the ball. We just made some mistakes that are very uncharacteristic for us and should be uncharacteristic for a senior-dominated team. And the other thing is, we just didn’t put the ball in. We shot a lot, but we didn’t make a lot.”
Shot percentage was not a major asset for either team, but particularly the Blue Devils. B-A did seem to revive at the end of each of the first and second periods to manage scoring leads of 14-9 after one quarter and 24-16 at halftime.
Ryan Myers scored 11 of his game-high 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds to lead Bellwood to an eight-point lead at the intermission. As Keech commented, shots fell from the outside like rain, but always seemed just a little short, a mite too long, or bounced around the hoop and fell out. Nate Carlson contributed four rebounds and Ricky Shannon added a pair of free throws and two buckets.
Neither team was able to hit double digits in the third quarter, although pesky Claysburg-Kimmel was able to cut the deficit to 31-25 with a nine-seven advantage in scoring.
Myers, who was relatively quiet during the third period, opened up in the fourth stanza with six more rebounds, a pair of baskets and a foul shot to finish with a double-double-16 points and a dozen rebounds to lead the way.
B-A senior Dan Smith only hit two buckets all night, but they were both from three-point range to give the Blue Devils a quick boost. Shawn Weiand chipped in three of four from the foul line and a pair of buckets to score all of his seven points in the final quarter when Bellwood-Antis was finally able to pull away to the final score, their biggest lead of the night. B-A couldn’t shake the Bulldogs it seemed, never able to improve their advantage to 10 points or more until the final four minutes of the contest.
“I thought we had good shots,” said Keech, “I didn’t think we forced shots, but tonight for some reason they just didn’t drop. I don’t know why we were able to extend our lead at the end of just about every period. I wish I could explain that and get us to play like that for a full quarter. It would be much easier and I wouldn’t be as gray as I am.”
A 20-14 margin in the fourth quarter nailed down the victory following Claysburg-Kimmel drawing to within six to begin the period.
“Especially at the end of the game, when I got the starters out,” said Keech in attempting to explain the shooting drought. “They just made mistakes again that are so uncharacteristic, they lost concentration. That second group that came in, really stepped up, extended that lead we had and never let them close the gap or get any momentum. I thought Shawn Weiand played extremely well at the end, Mark DelGrosso did some good things. Matt Rogers came in, came to the ball in their press, turned and looked down the floor and we got some easy baskets there. That is a part of the game, we can’t simulate in practice.”
Junior Tyler Swindell led the Bulldogs with 16 points.
Bellwood-Antis travels to Southern Huntingdon on Tuesday for their next action, before back-to-back home games on Friday, Dec. 13 against Glendale, and Saturday Dec., 14, against Bishop Guilfoyle. Game time for the Southern Huntingdon contest is 6:30 p.m. for junior varsity and 8 p.m. for the varsity. Both home games are Jayvees at 6 and Varsity following at 7:30.
Junior Varsity
Bellwood-Antis improved their junior varsity mark to 2-1 with a 33-28 win over the Bulldog Jayvees. Paul Greiner led a joint effort with nine points and Aaron Bell and Chris Edmiston added eight points each.
Matt Plummer helped out on the glass with a team-best seven rebounds and Mark DelGrosso added five boards for the Blue Devils.
Bellwood-Antis 51 Claysburg-Kimmel 39
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Carlson 2 0-0 4, Crider, 2 0-1 4, Myers 6 4-5 16, Smith 2 0-0 6, Shannon 3 2-2 8, Hughes 0 0-0 0, Mattern 2 0-0 5, Greiner 0 0-0 0, Rogers 0 0-0 0, Weiand 2 3-4 7, DelGrosso 0-1-2 1, Plummer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 19 10-16 51.
CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL – Knisely 0 6-8 6, Mock 2 0-5 4, Swindell 8 0-0 16, Peuchert 0 0-1 0, Lingenfelter 2 1-2 5, Woodring 2 0-0 5, Long 1 0-0 3, Gordon 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 7-16 39.
Score By Quarters
Bellwood-Antis…….14 10 7 20 – 51
Claysburg-Kimmel…. 9 7 9 14 – 39
Three-point goals Bellwood-Antis 3 (Smith 2, Mattern 1)
Claysburg-Kimmel 2 (Long 1, Woodring)
