Lady Rams strong start lifts them to victory over Lady Raiders

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: December 21, 2021

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – Two familiar foes met Tuesday in a Mountain League battle when the Penns Valley girls traveled to Bellefonte in girls basketball action.

The Lady Rams got off to an early lead and continued to maintain the lead throughout, taking home a 61-48 Mountain League contest.

For the Raiders it was their first home game of the season after six road games.

“We were surprised about how they came out in that man defense and they played it real aggressive. I think for us we just had to go out and adjust. I thought we did a good job doing that. We talked about growth this season and how far this group has come from last season, said Terrence Green. “They are really showing their growth in that first quarter and not really buckling and settling in. We knew we would get ours eventually. And eventually, we did.

The Rams fiesty guard Scotty Dinges kept the Bellefonte offense off-balanced forcing numerous turnovers on defense and produced 18 points in the contest.

Teammate Katie Romig also finished with double digits with a 12-point effort.

Bellefonte was led by Emilee Neff who finished with 13 points.

Things started out well for the Raiders out quickly posting a 5-0 lead on a bucket down under Angelina Aviles and a triple by Neff.

Defensively, the Raiders came out in a man-to-man defense and caught the Rams off guard.

But the Rams came firing back.

Dinges went right to the heart of the Bellefonte defense, getting fouled in the process and then hitting one free throw after being fouled.

Penns Valley went to a high pressure defense and produced a turnover to put the ball in Kate Goodwin’s hands and she hit an off balanced shot inside, cutting it to a 5-3 contest.

Bellefonte called a time out to regroup.

However, the Penns Valley defense forced numerous turnovers allowing the Lady Rams to go on a 9-0 run, giving the visitors a 12-5 advantage.

When the first quarter ended, Penns Valley had control of the 14-6 contest.

But the Raiders seemed unphased making a move to cut the contest to

16-13 going on a 7-2 run. Helping Bellefonte get to within striking distance was Maria Cotter. Cotter popped a triple getting the fans back into the game.

Bellefonte would get it to within one at 16-15 before the Lady Rams would push its offense and its transition game to a fast paced contest.

Offensively, Penns Valley was able to push the score on a 15-5, extending its lead to 34-19.

When the two teams went into the intermission, the Rams led 36-22.

Going into the final stanza Penns Valley increased its lead once again to 22 at 44-22.

But the Raiders refused to give in and was able to battle back in the final stanza to a 13- point deficit before falling 61-48.

“I’m very pleased with how they did. We’ve been working on playing man-to-man defense and I thought they did a trend pi’s job today,” said Bellefonte coach Marcus Toomer. “It was nice to finally have a home game. We played six games on the road. We had a pretty great crowd and I thought they fed off that energy. They made some buckets. I’m very proud of them.”