Bald Eagle girls uses strong 4th to top rival Bellefonte

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: January 16, 2023

By Kenny Varner

WINGATE – In a hard fought contest Monday night, the Bald Eagle Area girls basketball team broke open a close contest with rival Bellefonte to capture the Mountain League victory 42-29.

It would be a game that would be a 5-point Eagles lead going into the final stanza.

In the fourth, the Eagles defense tightened its grip and held the Lady Raiders to eight points while its offense rolled for 16 en route to the victory.

“It was a great win! I’m proud of the girls. They played hard. Anytime you can beat your cross town rival in a game like that it’s a great feeling,” said Bald Eagle coach Shawn Thompson. “We had seven kids that really contributed and played hard tonight. I’m really proud of our girls.”

Bald Eagle was paced offensively by Abby Hoover as she hit two triples and went 5-6 from the free throw line. Gabbie Perry finished with nine and teammate Tayla Habovick followed with eight.

It would be the defense that would take center stage as it held the Red Raiders to single digits in 3-of-4 quarters.

Bellefonte’s defense was also strong early on holding the Lady Eagles to single digits in the first and second quarter.

The Lady Raiders out rebounded Bald Eagle 36 to 17.

Offensively, Bellefonte was led by Taylor Brown who finished with a double-double. She pulled down 14 rebounds and scored 10 to pace her team.

Teammate MacKenzie Ellenberger finished with six.

“It was a really disappointing result for us today. We’ve been really have been working hard in practice, especially with our defense,” said Bellefonte coach Marcus Toomer. “It was unfortunate that we didn’t come ready to play and it took so long for us to really get into the game. If we had the energy we had in the fourth in the whole game it might have been a different result.”

Going into the fourth quarter, the Eagles led 26-21.

Hoover got the scoring started as she hit 2-of-2 from the foul line after being fouled.

Minutes later Habovick stole a Bellefonte pass and took it all the way in for the lay up, upping it to a 30-21 score.

But in the following inbounds, Bellefonte was able to beat the press as Emma Rossman, who finished with nine rebounds, caught a full court pass and layed it up for the East bucket.

Bald Eagle continued its hot hand, going on a 7-0 run to bump up their score to 37-23.

But the Lady Raiders refused to quit as they battled back on the shooting of Ellenberger and Keira Whitman who put their offense on a 4-0 run. However, the Eagles finished off the scoring on 5 of 6 at the free throw line, ending the game on a 5-2 run and ending things at 42-29.

In the JV contest, the Red Raiders took home the 29-19 victory.

Bald Eagle Area 42, Bellefonte 29

BEL 8 3 10 8 – 29

BEA 5 8 13 16 – 42

Scoring: Bellefonte – Emma Rossman 1 0-0 2, Taylor Brown 4 2-3 10, MacKenzie Ellenberger 2 2-4 6. Keira Whitman 2 1-2 5, Madison Ripka 2 0-0 4, Maria Cotter 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 5-9 29.

Bald Eagle Area – Abby Hoover 2 5-6 11, Olivia Boone 0 2-2 2, Sybel Thompson 1 3-4 5, Tayla Habovick 4 0-0 8, Gabbie Perry 2 5-6 9, Addisyn Burns 2 3-6 7. Totals 11 18-24 42.

Played but didn’t score: Bellefonte – Jaylee Lose 0 0-0 0, Sydney Hamilton 0 0-0 0. Bald Eagle Area – Emma Hoover 0 0-0 0.

Three-point shots: Bellefonte -None. Bald Eagle Area – A. Hoover 2.