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By John Hartsock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
BELLWOOD -- Led by veteran coach Deanna Jubeck, the Hollidaysburg Area High School girls basketball program has enjoyed a run of District 6 Class 5A championships, as well as considerable success in the PIAA state tournament over the past several seasons.
This year's edition of the Lady Tigers, which features an outstanding and experienced nucleus, promises to be a unit that produces balanced scoring, solid rebounding, and a relentless, ball-hawking defense that forces its opposition into mistakes.
That was the case Wednesday night, as Hollidaysburg made its presence known on both ends of the floor and controlled the tempo from start to finish en route to a 58-28 victory over Bellwood-Antis in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference, and season opener, for both teams at the Bellwood-Antis High School gymnasium.
With junior guard Makenna Weimert scoring a game-high 14 points, junior post Clare Padamonsky adding 12, and senior guard Bella Vent chipping in 11, Hollidaysburg burst out to a 16-5 lead after one quarter and held a 36-14 advantage at intermission.
The Lady Tigers' pressure defense was a huge and recurrent contributing factor, making numerous steals that were converted into points.
That will be modus operandi for this year's team, according to Jubeck.
"Our guards make us a very quick, athletic team, and when they're out running and jumping, they get lots of steals in the front court that they can turn into easy buckets,'' Jubeck said. "As a team, we've talked about being a lot of different parts that are pieced together, and which every night, can have several players scoring a lot of points for us.''
Bellwood-Antis coach Kyley Longo, whose Lady Blue Devils also qualified for the state playoffs at the Class 2A level last year, thought that her team's inability to handle Hollidaysburg's defensive pressure was a tell-tale factor.
"They have several good athletes in their front court, and we didn't handle their pressure well,'' Longo said. "We're not going to let one loss define us, but the biggest thing that we learned tonight is to play with effort in taking care of the basketball.''
After senior guard Lauren Stevenson opened the game with a 3-pointer for Hollidaysburg, the Lady Tigers surged to an early 12-2 lead on Vent's layup, jumper from the key, and free throw, along with Padamonsky's three field goals on two putbacks and a lay-in off a teammate's feed.
"I think there were a lot of nerves coming in for the first game, but we've also been practicing hard for so long that we wanted to show what we've been working on,'' Padamonsky said. "We've tried to focus on sharing the ball as a team, and I think that we showed that tonight.''
Hollidaysburg ruled the second quarter, 20-9, with senior guard Alissa Heim, Vent, and Weimert each converting steals into layups, and Stevenson cashing a layup after another teammate's steal.
Hollidaysburg was able to use its bench liberally in the second half, as Bellwood -- which was led by junior forward Lilly Gerwert's 13 points -- never mounted a threat.
"We have most of our starters back from last year, and we've gelled as a team,'' Jubeck said. "This is a fun group to watch.''
Game notes: Junior Alana Lightner, who was a key player on last season's Bishop Guilfoyle Academy Class 1A state championship team, transferred to Hollidaysburg this school year and is expected to play a significant role in the Lady Tigers' fortunes this season. Lightner was navigating on crutches on the sidelines during Wednesday's season opener, but Jubeck said that she expects Lightner to start playing basketball again very soon ... Both teams play on the road Friday night, with Hollidaysburg at Chestnut Ridge and Bellwood visiting Somerset.
HOLLIDAYSBURG (58): Stevenson 2 0-0 5, Vent 4 3-5 11, Heim 3 0-0 7, Padamonsky 5 2-2 12, Weimert 7 0-3 14, Sidney 4 0-0 9, Steiner 0 0-0 0, Lear 0 0-0 0, Bailey 0 0-0 0, Gearhart 0 0-0 0, Leighty 0 0-0 0. Totals - 25 5-10 58.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS (28): Clapper 1 1-4 4, Norton 0 4-4 4, Gerwert 4 4-4 13, Cacciotti 2 0-0 5, Sweigert 0 0-0 0, Sloey 1 0-0 2, Turek 0 0-0 0, Campbell 0 0-0 0, Waite 0 0-0 0. Totals - 8 9-12 28.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Hollidaysburg 16 20 15 7--58
Bellwood-Antis 5 9 6 8--28
3-point goals: Hollidaysburg 3 (Stevenson, Heim, Sidney); Bellwood-Antis 3 (Clapper, Gerwert, Cacciotti).
Records: Hollidaysburg (1-0 overall and in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference); Bellwood-Antis (0-1, 0-1).
Officials: Cory Widmar, Pat Hall, Doug McNulty.
JV: Hollidaysburg, 25-15. High scorers--Steiner, H, 10; Sloey, BA, 7.