Belleville Mennonite boys fall to Columbia Christian

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: February 16, 2022

Photo by Bob Hockenbrock
Columbia County Christian 56, Belleville Mennonite 38

BELLEVILLE – It wasn’t the ideal ending to the season, but the Belleville Mennonite Thunder did not go without a fight as the Thunder fell to Columbia County Christian 56-38 in their final game of the season during Allegheny Christian Athletic Association boys basketball action Tuesday evening.

Belleville Mennonite attacked first and opened the game up with a 4-0 run. The Defenders had a tough time setting up into their respective offense.

But then once Columbia County Christian switched to a full court press, the Defenders began forcing Thunder turnovers into buckets.

Columbia County Christian was led by Luke Coghan who scored nine of the 16 total point scored for the period.

The Thunder looked to switch things up a bit in the second quarter as they struggled to attack inside and get past Defender big man Andre Araniva and decided to go to a more jump shooting approach.

And the one to answer the call was Christopher Stoltzfus who was dropping shots from the mid-range as well as a pair of shots from beyond the arc and scored eight of the 11 total points in the frame with the other three ball scored by Quinn Renno.

The Belleville Mennonite defense showed its scrappy side as the Thunder were diving for loose balls and not giving easy looks for the Columbia County Christian offense.

At one point in the quarter, the Thunder had scored more points than the Defenders did, but then late in the second quarter, Columbia County Christian got right back on track and made a late run to take a 28-18 lead at halftime.

It was pretty much the same story for Belleville Mennonite in the third quarter defensively where the Thunder continued to pressure Columbia County Christian, not allowing little to no easy looks. The Belleville Mennonite offense was spreading the wealth offensively as four different players scored at least a basket for the period. Renno and Evan Crosson combined for eight of the 13 points scored for the frame.

Then by the fourth quarter, the Thunder looked to finally break on through and cut the lead down to single digits.

However, Columbia County Christian found its big man down low in Araniva who controlled the painted area and powered his way to the basket and helped close out the game scoring eight of the 14 points scored in the quarter.

Araniva led with a game high of 24 points while teammate Coghan dropped another 17 points for the night.

For Belleville Mennonite, the Thunder were led by Stoltzfus who scored 14 points for the game.

Renno added another 12 points along with five rebounds and three steals.

Mitchell Kauffman who had four points led the Thunder on the boards and collected eight rebounds and had three blocks. Crosson had six rebounds and four steals to go along with his six points.

Belleville Mennonite ends its season with a final overall record of (6-11) and (4-8).