Bellefonte boys top rival BEA

By rscaife
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Updated: January 14, 2017

WINGATE – With both the girls’ teams teams just miles away at Bellefonte, the Bald Eagle Area boys basketball team took on its Mountain League rival, Bellefonte Friday night at the Eagles’ home court in a game that didn’t get underway until 45 minutes after its original start time.
The Red Raiders got hot early on in the contest and never looked back as the went on for a 58-27 victory over the Bald Eagles.
Bellefonte tallied two players in double-digit figures three who just missed the cut.
Ben McCartney led the Red Raider attack with a game-high 12 points while teammate Nate Tice finished with 10 points. Six of Tice’s points came from beyond the three-point line.
Noah Naldosky finished just one point short of the 10-point plateau while Cade Fortney and Caleb Rockey chipped in with eight points each in the winning effort.
Bald Eagle was led on the night by Jaden Jones with seven points. Jordan Jones followed close with a six-point outing.
Things were very close in the beginning of the contest as both teams came out ready to go.
Tice opened the contest with a triple on the very first shot of the game.
Jaden Nones quickly cut it to one as he drove all the way through the heart of the Bellefonte defense.
Rockey, who was the driving force inside the paint on this night, pulled down an offense of rebound on the next trip down the court, making it a 5-2 game with still 6 minutes left in the opening period.
Bald Eagle tied the game at five seconds later when Blake Roberts lined up his shot from beyond three-point land and sent it home.
From there, the Red Raiders took over control of the momentum and the quarter by going on an 11-0 run, putting them ahead 16-5 as the first period buzzer sounded.
“It was a day off school so there is a lot of unknowns when the kids don’t have school. But I thought we came out with a lot of intensity. I thought we set the tone on the defense of side of the ball,” Bellefonte coach Kris Glunt said. “I thought it was a great team effort. I thought we played very smart offensively.it’s great to get everybody in. We have a group of kids here that play very hard. They are high character kids and anytime we have an opportunity to get guys extended minutes it feels really good.”
Bellefonte opened the second quarter the way it finished the first, it extended its lead to 32-5 thanks to a 16-0 run to start things off. In that run, the Red Raiders offense was strong from both inside and out while its defense also produced points off numerous steals and other turnovers.
With 3:06 left in the half, Bald Eagle picked up its first points of the half when Garrett Barnhart took a lay in for two.
Seconds later, he came right back and hit a jumper good enough to be called a triple.
However, going into the intermission, Bellefonte held a strong 34-10 lead with no intentions of letting up.
Going into the second half, Bellefonte continued to maintain its lead and improve on it.
However, Bald Eagle’s defense held them to just 11 points while its offense tallied six.
It it wouldn’t be enough for the Bald Eagles to make any kind of come back as the Red Raiders finished out the game with the 31-point victory.
In the JV game, the two teams battled its way to a double overtime thriller where the Bald Eagles would escape winners of a 60-59 nail biter.
Due to the late contest Bald Eagle coach Bill Buttersworth was unavailable for comment.