Millionaires top Lady Raiders

By Kenny Varner
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Updated: January 6, 2015

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – Monday night, the Bellefonte were looking to open the new year with a victory over Williamsport at the Red Raiders gym. In their first meeting of the year, the Red Raiders battled Williamsport tooth and nail before falling in a 6-point loss to the Millionaires.

It was deja vue for much of the first three quarters as Bellefonte trailed by six for much of that time before a late run by the speedy Millionaires proved to be too much for the up and coming Red Raiders, falling 48-33.

However, despite being outsized in the rebounding department, teammates Lea McCartney and Marrissa Moriarta finished with a combined tally of 17 rebounds. Moriarta had seven while McCartney finished with 10.

McCartney also just fell short of a double-double, tallying eight points to go with the 10 boards.

Teammate Jess Book was also tough on the boards collecting eight.

But it would be the strong rebounding ability of Millionaires center Jaynell Robinson that would lead the charge, bringing down a game-high 16 rebounds while muscling her way to a 13-point effort.

Williamsport’s Chloe Jennings had the hot hand offensively for the Millionaires scoring a game-high 18 points en route to the victory.

“We doing what we wanted to do defensively against Jaynell Robinson. At the post, Marrissa (Moriarta) and Lea (McCartney), I couldn’t have asked for more from them. Maybe a few less fouls from Lea. I got more out of them offensively then I expected tonight,” Bellefonte coach Adam Gearhart said. “Its just confidence shooting. We’ve struggled with our shots all season. For some reason we get within six feet of the hoop and we can make a shot.”

In the first quarter, both teams got off to a slow start offensively, posting a total of a combined 22 points.

After a Williamsport bucket, the Red Raiders scored their first basket at the 6:15 mark when McCartney followed up her own miss with a close put back, tying the game at two.

The Millionaires went on the games first scoring run, closing down the easy looks by Bellefonte, resulting in a 5-0 run.

Three of the five points came from Robinson. Robinson had a bucket and was one-of-two from the charity stripe to give her team a 7-2 lead with 4:30 left.

Bellefonte bounced right back into the game, hitting on consecutive baskets, one by Book and a Moriarta drive to the hoop, cutting it to 7-6.

Jennings put her team up by three when she hit a clutch shot with 1:21 left in the opening period.

On the Red Raiders next possession, Alexis Wetzler hit nothing but net from beyond the 3-point stripe, tying the contest at nine with 1:14 left.

It would be Williamsport that would have the last say in the quarter, ending the period on a 4-0 run to take a 13-9 advantage going into the second stanza.

Defensively, both teams were able to turn it up a notch when both teams finished the scoring in single digits.

The Millionaires went into the intermission, holding a 22-16 advantage.

In the quarter, Robinson had her strongest scoring period of the game, posting five of her teams nine. Bellefonte got four points from Moriarta and three from Steen.

Things started to slip away from Red Raiders in the third when Williamsport outscored them 15-7 to take a comfortable 37-23 advantage going into the final stanza.

“They were able to pull away there in the third quarter,” Gearhart said. “ We just didn’t have the energy to fight back at that point.”

In the fourth, Bellefonte battled hard to get back in the game but it was too little too late, falling by 15 points, 48-33.