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By Nate Ritchey
nritchey@altoonamirror.com
BELLWOOD -- The Bellwood-Antis and Williamsburg girls basketball programs have played many great games in their history, meeting at least twice a year in the Inter-County Conference and even dating back to Juniata Valley League play.
On Tuesday night, the two schools met for the first time as non-conference opponents with Bellwood's offseason move to the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference.
The Lady Blue Pirates flexed their defensive muscles in the second quarter -- coming up with six steals and forcing plenty of rushed shots -- to turn a close contest into a runaway en route to a 61-35 victory over the Lady Blue Devils.
"When we heard that Bellwood was going to go into the Laurel Highlands that was definitely a downer for us because they are always a big time competitor for us in the ICC," Williamsburg coach Amy Hileman said. "It was great that our AD's were able to work together and get a game on the schedule."
With the victory, Williamsburg moved to 9-1, while Bellwood fell to 5-3.
"They (Williamsburg) are one of the best teams in the area. They are fast and they're aggressive," Bellwood-Antis coach Kyley Longo said. "It was nice to see (Williamsburg's) Ayla (Hileman) back on the floor. Certainly, we want to play them whenever they have everybody. ... At this point in the year, it's good to play teams like this so you can see what you're missing."
The first quarter looked reminiscent of many of the previous matchups as the Lady Blue Pirates led by three (13-10) in what was still anyone's game.
B-A began with the first five points on a layup by Lainey Quick and 3-pointer from Chloe Hammond.
Williamsburg scored the next six on four points from LeeAnna Royer and a layup from Laney Prough that gave her team the lead for good at 6-5.
The Lady Pirates got five more to take an 11-5 edge on a three-point play from Royer and baseline runner by Ayla Hileman, who was making her first appearance of the season after offseason ACL surgery.
B-A's Leigha Clapper got her only points of the night on a trey to make it 11-8 before Vada Gorsuch hit inside.
A layup from Bellwood's Lilly Gerwert trimmed it back to three (13-10) where it remained heading into the second stanza.
"I think we were a little nervous to start, so it took us a quarter to get into things," Coach Hileman said. "... We just started clicking. With this being Ayla's first game back it was a little feeling everyone out (chemistry on the floor). It took us a quarter to function the way we wanted to. Once we settled in, we were pretty much able to take control."
The second quarter is where Williamsburg found itself and delivered the knockout punch as it outscored Bellwood-Antis 24-1 to take a commanding lead.
A free throw from Hammond at 6:33 gave her team its only point.
It was all Lady Blue Pirates from there as they got a balanced scoring attack from Ayla Hileman who had eight, while Royer and Gorsuch contributed seven apiece and Prough notched a putback.
In the quarter, Williamsburg won the battle of the boards 13-7, forced six turnovers -- five of which were on steals with four leading directly to transition points.
Royer, who scored a game-high 22 points and had seven steals, came up with four in the quarter.
With the Williamsburg defense hounding B-A, the Blue Devils forced up a few shots and, even when the attempts were uncontested, they were hurried.
When the second quarter buzzer sounded, Williamsburg's lead of three had stretched to 37-11.
"In the second, we just crumbled," Longo said. "It started to look like everybody was bearing the burden of the game on their own shoulders instead of dispersing it amongst the team's shoulders."
With the damage already done, Bellwood narrowly outscored Williamsburg by a 12-11 margin in the third.
Leading 48-23 at the start of the fourth, Ayla Hileman buried a 3-pointer and then knocked down a pair of free throws to make the score 53-23 -- kicking the mercy-rule running clock into effect the rest of the way.
"We just missed effort tonight. We came out flat, we looked defeated. But it's a learning process," Longo said. "Yea, it's a bad game for us but we'll learn from it. It's better to learn now than in playoffs when you're one-and-done. We'll take the lump today, we'll watch film and we'll get better because of it."
Ayla Hileman finished with 17 points, while Gorsuch posted 15 points and 11 rebounds.
"You could see the tears in her (Ayla) eyes when she was getting announced," Coach Hileman said. "She's worked really hard to get back. We're trying to ease her in but we are definitely looking forward to having her back."
Hammond's eight points were the high mark for Bellwood.
WILLIAMSBURG (61): Hileman 6 2-2 17, R. Prough 0 0-0 0, Royer 9 3-3 22, Gorsuch 7 1-5 15, L. Prough 2 0-0 4, Ranalli 0 0-0 0, Carper 1 0-0 3, G. Colbert 0 0-0 0, A. Colbert 0 0-0 0, Alexander 0 0-0 0, Frye 0 0-0 0, Bilger 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25 6-10 61.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS (35): Clapper 1 0-0 3, Norton 1 1-2 3, C. Hammond 3 1-2 8, Quick 1 0-0 2, Gerwert 3 1-2 7, Cacciotti 2 2-2 7, Waite 0 0-0 0, Worthing 0 0-0 0, Bardell 0 0-0 0, Hess 0 0-0 0, P. Hammond 2 0-0 5, Campbell 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 5-8 35.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Williamsburg 13 24 11 13 -- 61
Bellwood-Antis 10 1 12 12 -- 35
3-point field goals: Williamsburg 5 (Hileman 3, Royer, Carper); Bellwood-Antis 4 (Clapper, C. Hammond, Cacciotti, P. Hammond).
Records: Williamsburg (9-1); Bellwood-Antis (5-3).
JV: Williamsburg, 43-41. High scorers — Anna Colbert, W, 16; Giuliana Gummo, BA, 9.