Mirror photo by Michael Boytim Jim Swaney talks with soon-to-be assistant Lindsey Conlon before Wednesday’s game.

BELLWOOD — The Bellwood-Antis varsity girls basketball program will be playing under a new coaching staff for the rest of this season following a shake-up that began to go into action Wednesday night with the Lady Blue Devils’ home game against Central.

Lindsey Conlon, who previously was the junior high girls coach, served as head coach during B-A’s 65-52 win that upped its record to 7-3 this season.

Beginning today with practice and in Friday’s game at Bishop Guilfoyle Academy, the Lady Blue Devils will have former head coach Jim Swaney back on the bench alongside Conlon.

“Tonight, Lindsey Conlon will be the head coach,” Swaney said. “She’ll be moving up to varsity. Starting tomorrow at practice, she and I, it’s going to be a combined effort. She and I will be handling the varsity and junior varsity. What she does with the junior high will be limited.”

Swaney and Conlon are replacing Kyley Longo, who served as the head coach during Bellwood’s first nine games of the season and for the past two full seasons after taking over for Swaney when he retired. Ryan McGarvey, Longo’s husband, and Chelsea McCaulsky — assistants on Longo’s staff — were also not on the bench Wednesday.

The Mirror reached out to Bellwood-Antis athletic director Charlie Burch to ask about the status of Longo following social media posts questioning her future with the program.

“We appreciate the time and energy Coach Longo-McGarvey invested in our girls program and wish her success in her future endeavors,” Burch texted the Mirror.

He deferred to superintendent Ed DiSabato for further comment, but attempts to reach DiSabato were unsuccessful.

Longo last coached Bellwood-Antis in a game Tuesday, Dec. 30 when the Lady Blue Devils fell to Penn Cambria, 57-39, in the championship game of the Fred Miller Memorial Tournament in Tyrone. Prior to that game, B-A had won six straight.

Swaney, who served as the game manager for Wednesday’s game and has helped in similar roles at B-A since his retirement from coaching following a loss to Bishop McCort in the District 6 Class 2A quarterfinals in 2023, confirmed the plan is for Conlon and himself to coach the team for the rest of the season.

Swaney, who has a career record of 569-273 and is second only to former Bishop Guilfoyle coach Mark Moschella’s 603 wins in Blair County history, also said he had no interest in resuming his role as the full-time coach after this season.

Swaney asked for Longo to be considered as Bellwood’s next head coach after her time as his assistant in which the pair led the Lady Blue Devils to back-to-back state championship wins in 2018 and 2019. Wednesday, he offered his thoughts on Longo.

“She’s like a daughter to me,” Swaney said. “I love her to death. She has a great family, and I wish her nothing but the best. I’m here for the kids.”

The Mirror reached out to Longo by phone to offer her a chance to comment, but as of press time, she had not replied.

Travis Campbell, the father of the program’s all-time leading scorer Alli Campbell and current senior Lindsay Campbell, asked the Mirror to comment on Longo’s behalf.

“I’m very upset,” Campbell said. “Coach Longo not only put her heart and soul into this team and program, she cares deeply about every single one of these kids — one through 15 — and in my opinion, it’s going to be a huge loss.”

Conlon has coached everyone on the current varsity roster — except the senior class of Campbell, Marissa Cacciotti and Lilly Gerwert — at the junior high level. Those seniors were freshmen on Swaney’s final team.

“Coach Swaney and myself, all the people included, we just want to do what’s best for these kids,” Conlon said. “We really care about the program, really care about them and want to keep that going.”

The Conlon-led team jumped out to a 25-5 advantage Wednesday night after one quarter.

“I am super happy for the girls,” Conlon said. “We all said we’re making tonight about basketball. They really did that as a team in general, all of us together. From the bench to the starters, all the way through, I’m really proud of them.”

The Lady Blue Devils got into the bonus with 5:04 to play in the first quarter and took advantage, going 14-of-16 from the foul line in the period.

“Our girls were ready to come out and play, but they had a little too many jitters,” Central coach Blake Over said. “They were a little loose with their hands. (The officials) were calling it pretty tight, and Bellwood made their free throws. Starting in a hole against a team like that is tough.”

The Lady Dragons, led by 26 points and 11 rebounds by Addie Imes, fought back to get within 12 but never cut the deficit to single digits.

“It’s one of those things when you’re down 20 you can either roll over or you can keep fighting,” Over said. “We kept fighting tonight, and I thought we played really well once that second quarter started. We just can’t dig that big of a hole in the first.”

Gerwert led all scorers with 32 points and added 18 rebounds. Along with Cacciotti, who scored 12 points, and Isabella Sloey, who finished with 13 points, Gerwert helped B-A hold off every Central rally.

“I was pleased with that,” Conlon said. “We stayed poised. I thought they were positive even when they made mistakes. I thought we made some changes when they made runs that switched the game back in our direction.”

CENTRAL (52): Benton 2 0-0 4, Poet 1 0-2 2, Imes 9 5-6 26, Rhykerd 3 0-0 8, Diehl 6 0-0 12, Long 0 0-0 0, Parrilla 0 0-0 0. Totals — 21 5-6 52.

BELLWOOD-ANTIS (65): Gerwert 11 8-10 32, Cacciotti 3 4-5 12, Sloey 4 5-8 13, Sweigert 1 1-2 4, Worthing 0 0-0 0, Hammond 0 0-0 0, Plummer 2 0-0 4. Totals — 21 18-25 65.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central 5 18 13 16 — 52

Bellwood-Antis 25 13 15 12 — 65

3-point goals: Central 5 (Imes 3, Rhykerd 2); Bellwood-Antis 5 (Gerwert 2, Cacciotti 2, Sweigert).

Records: Central (3-8); Bellwood-Antis (7-3).

Officials: Jim Boston, Mark Mitchell, Darren Elvey.

JV: Bellwood-Antis, 32-18. High scorers–Maya Plummer, BA, 8; Cami Parrilla, C, 7.