12/30/25 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Penn Cambria's Meghan Andersen puts up a shot over Bellwood-Antis' Karlie Sweigert.

TYRONE — Penn Cambria coach Josh Himmer has a wealth of talent, experience, speed and depth at his disposal.

At any given point, the Lady Panthers swap out five and bring a fresh five on the floor to take their place and not miss a beat.

The result can be devastating to a team that doesn’t go as deep into their bench.

Bellwood-Antis was PC’s latest victim as the Panthers wore out the Blue Devils and forced 35 turnovers en route to a 57-39 victory in the championship of the Judge Fred B. Miller Reliance Bank Tournament on Tuesday night at Tyrone Area High School.

“We are super talented, and we are 10 or 11 (players) deep,” Himmer said. “We’re going to use what God has given us and them with their ability. They’re tough girls, and we knew coming into the season that we weren’t the tallest team, but we were deep.”

Penn Cambria led 13-9 after the opening quarter after the Lady Blue Devils started the contest with the first nine points when Lilly Gerwert knocked down a 3-pointer at the 3:11 mark.

The Lady Panthers reeled off the next 13 points, including a free throw from Sophia Beard with 46 ticks left to give her team the lead for good.

B-A hung tight in the second frame as PC won by a 21-16 advantage to take a 34-25 lead into the half.

“I thought we battled the boards hard, I thought once we decided to start ripping some basketball’s that we did a good job there,” Bellwood-Antis coach Kyley Longo said. “We knew that they (Penn Cambria) like to take a lot of shots in transition, so we wanted to crash hard. … We’ve got to put the ball in the basket on our end of the floor.”

After giving the ball up seven times in the first eight minutes of play, the Panthers accounted for just five the final three quarters.

Gerwert, who led all scorers with 16 points in addition to 10 rebounds and five blocks, began the third frame with a trey that pulled the Blue Devils within six at 34-28.

However, the relentless trapping pressure of the Penn Cambria began to take its toll on inexperienced Bellwood.

The Lady Panthers forced 11 turnovers as they owned a 14-5 edge on the scoreboard to turn the contest quickly in their favor.

“We are pretty well conditioned but we are super athletic,” Himmer said. “We are going to get in your face and we are going to play tough defense.”

Sophia Beard posted six of her team-high 15 points in the quarter for PC, while teammate Rachel Fisher, who finished with 13 points, also accounted for six in the third.

“We had a kajillion turnovers,” Longo said. “We were trying to throw over the top when we shouldn’t have, we were trying to throw off our back foot, off one foot, we weren’t coming to the basketball, we weren’t executing the things that we worked on in practice. We knew the things that they (Penn Cambria) wanted to do and we knew their personnel. We went from being willing to fight to suddenly being on our heels.”

Heading into the final quarter, Penn Cambria had doubled its halftime edge to 18 with a 48-30 score.

The two teams scored nine points in the fourth, but Bellwood gave the ball away nine more times which didn’t help it cut into the deficit.

The Lady Panthers largest lead of the night was 21 when Peyton Rabatin hit a bucket late in the contest to make it 57-36.

Reagan Ronan was the third PC member in double figures as she delivered a pair of 3-pointers and ended with 10 points.

“I’ve told the girls plenty of times before that I don’t want to play against us — you can’t scout us,” Himmer said. “You can know what we’re going to do, and you can do this and that. But you can’t just key on one girl.”

In the consolation, Tyrone used a strong third quarter to pull away from Central in a 59-31 win.

Elise Volders scored a game-high 16 points for the Lady Eagles, while Claire Lehman notched 11 and Lola Woomer had 10.

Addie Imes collected 12 points to pace the Lady Scarlet Dragons.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

BELLWOOD-ANTIS (39): L. Gerwert 7 0-0 16, Sweigert 1 0-0 3, Cacciotti 2 1-2 7, Worthing 1 0-0 2, Sloey 2 4-6 8, Plummer 0 0-0 0, Hammond 1 0-0 3. Totals — 14 5-8 39.

PENN CAMBRIA (57): Ronan 3 2-2 10, McCoy 1 2-2 5, Andersen 0 0-0 0, Ave. LeMaster 1 0-0 3, Fisher 5 2-3 13, Beard 5 5-6 15, Ava. LeMaster 0 0-0 0, Rabatin 3 0-0 7, Gergley 1 2-4 4, Stipanovich 0 0-0 0, Davison 0 0-0 0, Rickens 0 0-0 0. Totals — 19 13-17 57.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bellwood-Antis 9 16 5 9 — 39

Penn Cambria 13 21 14 9 — 57

3-point goals: Bellwood-Antis 6 (L. Gerwert 2, Cacciotti 2, Sweigert, Hammond); Penn Cambria 6 (Ronan 2, McCoy, Ave. LeMaster, Rabatin, Fisher).

Records: Bellwood-Antis (5-3); Penn Cambria (7-2).

CONSOLATION GAME

CENTRAL (31): Poet 1 0-0 2, Benton 1 0-0 2, Rhykerd 2 0-0 6, Diehl 2 1-2 5, Imes 5 2-4 12, Parilla 0 0-0 0, Long 1 2-2 4. Totals: 12 5-8 31.

TYRONE (59): Woomer 3 3-6 10, Crowell 3 0-0 6, Parker 2 0-0 4, Lehman 4 0-2 11, Volders 7 1-1 16, Woodring 0 0-0 0, Harpster 2 0-0 5, Davis 3 0-0 7. Totals: 24 4-9 59.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central 6 13 8 4 — 31

Tyrone 9 15 20 15 — 59

3-point goals: Central 2 (Rhykerd 2); Tyrone 7 (Lehman 3, Woomer, Harpster, Volders, Davis).

Records: Central (2-8); Tyrone (5-3).