JMS girls make fourth quarter comeback in nail biter versus BMS

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: February 4, 2021

By Kenny Varner

BELLEVILLE – A fight to the finish.

In their Thursday match up, the Belleville Mennonite girls basketball team went up against Juniata Mennonite in a thriller in the first game of a double header.

The game wouldn’t be decided until the final seconds as the Lions came out victorious, winning 39-35.

Leading the way for Juniata was Erin Sheaffer who posted a 14-point and five rebound evening.

Teammates Payton Burd and Emily Sheaffer rounded out the top scores with eight each.

Belleville was led by Sonya Yoder’s 10 point and 13 rebound evening, finishing with a double-double performance.

Julianna Hertzler finished with eight while teammate Chloe Renno finished with seven.

Going into the final stanza, the Thunder clung to a one-point 26-25 lead.

The Lions exploded into the final stanza as they went on a 6-2 run to take the 30-29 lead.

In the run, Sheaffer tallied four points to put her team in the lead.

But the Thunder battled back to take back the lead on consecutive baskets by Renno and Hertzler, making it a 33-30 lead with 3:09 left.

Juniata got the ball back into the hands of Sheaffer who cut the game to a one-point deficit with only 2:09 left.

Juniata Mennonite called a time out to discuss their plan of action and it worked like a charm.

The Lions came out of the break and played shut down defense while its offense notched four points on baskets by Emily Sheaffer and Anika Martin, taking back the lead to 36-33 with only 1:14 left.

Juniata came back and refused to go away.

An inside bucket by Sydney German, cutting it to a 36-35 deficit.

However, the Lions finished off the scoring to expand the final score to 39-35.

Belleville Mennonite opened the contest by muscling out a slim 8-6 advantage after one.

The Thunder would expand its lead to three at the intermission as they continued to hold the momentum, 18-15.

But Juniata Mennonite continued to hang around and would not get frustrated as they would hang around within three for the entire game.

But when it counted in the fourth, the Lions were able to claw out a 39-35 victory.