Bellefonte celebrates Senior night with an overtime delight; tops Bearcats

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: February 1, 2020

Bellefonte 54, Huntingdon 51 (OT)

HUN 11 18 2 15 5 – 51

BEL 15 1 15 15 9 -54

Scoring: Huntingdon – Kynnedy Miller 5 0-2 14, Corinna Reamer 1 4-4 7, Kait McElroy 3 0-6 7, Allie Troup 4 2-2 13, Lexi Troup 3 1-2 10. Totals 16 7-16 51. Bellefonte – Mallorie Smith 2 5-12 9, Mia Johnson 1 7-8 9, Maddie Tice 4 1-1 9, Bella Corman 3 2-2 8, Sara DeHaas 8 2-2 19.

Played but didn’t score: Huntingdon – Rachel Kyle 0 0-0 0, Jordyn Patrick 0 0-0 0. Bellefonte – Maddie Steiner 0 0-0 0, Lily Gardner 0 0-0 0, Taylor Kerr 0 0-2 0.

Three-point shots: Huntingdon – Miller 4, Reamer, McElroy, A.Troup 3, L. Troup. Bellefonte – None.

JV score – Bellefonte 36-16.

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – They primed and ready to protect their court!

Friday night, a motivated Bellefonte girls basketball team refused to let Mountain League foe Huntingdon ruin their Senior night.

After getting outscored 18-1 in the second, the Lady Raiders came out primes and ready to get back into the game and battle for the win, and did just that as the two teams went into the overtime period and made the shots they needed, going into the 54-51 overtime victory.

Bellefonte honored seniors Maddie Steiner, Taylor Kerr and Mallorie Smith before the game.

“It was a great effort by the team tonight. They could have put their heads down when Huntingdon hit that triple to send it into overtime but we had a similar game last year. We were playing in Selinsgrove against Sullivan County and went into overtime and then double overtime and they kept their energy up and kept it going,” said Bellefonte coach Marcus Toomer said. “I’m am so proud of this team. This team continues to grow every single day.”

Sara DeHaas led the charge in the game, posting 19 points. She finished with a double-double also collecting 11 boards.

The Red Raiders had 39 rebounds on the night in the hard earned victory,

After falling behind 29-16 in the first half, the Lady Raiders came out and didn’t flinch as they went right to business going on a 6-0 run to start the third, cutting it to 29-22.

In the run, DeHaas, Smith and Maddie Tice all hit buckets starting the comeback.

Huntingdon got its first and only bucket by Kynnedy Miller with 2:21 left in the period to temporarily stop the Bellefonte run.

However, the Red Raiders weren’t quite done yet as they finished the scoring, posting the final 10 points to tie the contest at 31 going into the final stanza.

In the fourth, Bellefonte took its first lead of the second half on jumper by DeHaas.

But the Bearcats, who were deadly from the 3-point Line all night, picked up a trey from Miller, taking back the lead with 6:38.

But an inside bucket by DeHaas put them back up, forcing Huntingdon to call a time out with 6:17 left.

After the time out, the Red Raiders defense took back possession and again DeHaas posted a bucket, this time via an offensive board, putting her team ahead by three.

The Bearcats rallied back to cut it to one as Huntingdon went inside to Kait McElroy.

But on the following possession, the ball ended back in DeHaas’ hands and she did not disappoint and e tended their lead back to three.

Smith helped her team push their lead to five hitting two clutch free throws.

Bellefonte was aggressive on the boards and went at the Bearcats’ defense, forcing them into foul trouble early on.

But with one single triple from downtown by Miller, the Bearcats cut things back to within two with 3:31.

There would be no denying the fight the Lady Raiders as Maddie Tice scores on a fast break to push lead to four points.

As the time started to go under a minute, Bellefonte would hold a 46-43 advantage on a DeHaas offensive rebound and shot.

The game would remain with the same score until 6.6 seconds left when McElroy launched a last second triple at the buzzer, sending it into overtime.

In the extra period, Bellefonte got nine clutch free throws from the combination of DeHaas, Smith, Bella Corman and Mia Johnson while its defense held Huntingdon to five points en route to the victory.

Bellefonte will be back in action next Wednesday against Bald Eagle Area.