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By Nate Ritchey
nritchey@altoonamirror.com
BELLWOOD -- While the Central defense was executing its game plan to perfection, the offense was following suite on Wednesday night against Bellwood-Antis.
The Scarlet Dragons held the Blue Devils scoreless for 12-and-a-half minutes while racking up 23 unanswered points of their own.
The run allowed Central to take complete control of the contest as it captured a 54-25 victory over Bellwood in Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference action.
"We played great defense, but if you can't score then it makes it hard to win," Central coach Paul Frederick said. "We did a little of both tonight, so I was real proud of the kids."
B-A began the scoring with a 15-foot pullup from Anthony Caracciolo that he got fouled on at at 6:19.
Caracciolo missed the and-1 opportunity, and Bellwood's leading scorer didn't get on the scoreboard the rest of the night.
Part of the Dragons' defensive game plan was to limit Caracciolo, and Eli Muthler denied the Blue Devils' leading scorer much of a chance to even touch the ball, let alone get many shot attempts.
"Give credit to Central -- they are a heck of a team and well coached," Bellwood-Antis coach Tyler Mertiff said. "They took us out of our game plan. I have two main scorers but I've got a lot of great contributors on the team. Muthler did a great job -- we knew he was going to deny him (Caracciolo) as he's their (Central) go-to defender."
Following the B-A basket, Central's Troy Butler came down the floor and drilled a 3-pointer that sparked a 7-0 run and gave his team the lead for good.
Chance Schreier buried a trey to cut the deficit to two (7-5) with 3:30 remaining in the opening stanza.
Muthler, who led all scorers with 17 points, took a feed off a Butler steal and convert a layup to jumpstart the 23-0 Dragon run.
Central closed the first with a 14-5 edge, and then used four steals and a barrage of 3-pointers from Robert Long-Yarrison, Mark Bettwy and Muthler to record a 16-0 scoring differential in the second quarter that saw the lead balloon to 30-5 at the half.
"It's one of those things where we had the lead, and then you look up and you're down 30-5," Mertiff said. "It's the name of the game -- you've got to go on runs, and you want to slow their runs down."
Schreier ended the Bellwood-Antis drought with the first points of the third when he hit a trey at 7:05.
The closest the Blue Devils got the rest of the way was at 22 points when Holden Schreier, who was also a focused effort of Central's defense, registered his only points of the night when he converted an old-fashioned three-point play at 4:20 to make the score 36-14.
"Caracciolo has been really good the entire year, and Schreier, he's really played well lately m, as he's had like three 20-point games in his last five," Frederick said. "Obviously, we tried to key on them and not give them a lot of clean looks especially early. We did a great job as a team guarding those guys."
Mason Byler made a driving layup with 1.2 ticks left in the third to put Central up 48-17 -- kicking the mercy rule running clock into effect.
The Dragons completely unloaded their bench from the start of the fourth as Bellwood-Antis was able to take that stanza with an 8-6 scoring edge.
Bellwood-Antis is at Bishop Guilfoyle Friday night while Central is at Bald Eagle Area.
CENTRAL (54): Garver 0 0-0 0, Muthler 8 1-2 17, Butler 3 0-0 7, H. Smith 3 0-0 9, Albright 2 1-1 5, Long-Yarrison 1 0-0 3, Bettwy 1 2-2 5, Byler 2 0-0 4, Sparks 1 0-0 2, Bassler 0 0-0 0, D. Smith 0 0-0 0, Lingenfelter 1 0-0 2, Heuston 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 22 4-5 54.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS (25): Caracciolo 1 0-1 2, Bardell 0 0-0 0, H. Schreier 1 1-1 3, C. Schreier 3 0-0 8, Shanafelt 2 0-0 5, Cacciotti 0 0-0 0, Dickinson 0 0-0 0, Fatzinger 0 0-0 0, Dorminy 1 0-0 3, Gibbons 0 0-0 0, Gottshall 1 0-0 2, Sherlock 1 0-0 2, Mayes 0 0-2 0, D. Eckenrod 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 10 1-4 25.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Central 14 16 18 6 -- 54
Bellwood-Antis 5 0 12 8 -- 25
3-point field goals: Central 8 (H. Smith 3, Muthler 2, Butler, Long-Yarrison, Bettwy); Bellwood-Antis 4 (C. Schreier 2, Shanafelt, Dorminy).
Records: Central (13-3); Bellwood-Antis (4-11).
JV: Bellwood-Antis, 46-38. High scorers — Christian Heuston, C, 13; Connor Mayes, BA, 12.