The Lady Tigers left with a 69-45 win and double-digit scoring performances by four of their five starters.

Senior Alana Lightner led all scorers with 20 points while serving as a physical force offensively in the paint.

“My coaches and teammates have done a lot to get me the ball inside,” Lightner said. “They have been encouraging me to take those shots, and the weight room in the offseason really helped as well as stronger players covering me in practice.”

Leading by just five points midway through the second quarter, Hollidaysburg got a layup inside from Lightner followed by an outside jumper to make it 24-15.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Hollidaysburg's Makenna Weimert puts up a shot by Bellwood-Antis' Ava Worthing.

“She’s a physical threat on both ends of the floor whether it’s rebounding or getting the ball in the post and being able to hold her own on the block,” Hollidaysburg coach Deanna Jubeck said. “I think she’s an all around inside out player. We can put her inside, and she can get you some easy baskets there, or she can step out and hit some outside jump shots. She’s helped us to open things up for our guards as well.”

Bellwood-Antis coach Jim Swaney was encouraged with the way his team played during a first quarter in which the Lady Devils held the lead for the majority of the time, but credited Lightner for helping Hollidaysburg turn the tide.

“She posts well,” Swaney said. “She’s fundamentally very sound. She does some nice up and under moves, and we didn’t handle that well. We talked (Sunday) at practice about trying to front her. We did it sometimes, but other times we didn’t. We knew they were going to use transition a lot, and we would have liked to get back more than we did. We have to quit giving up points off turnovers. That’s the biggest thing we need to work on.”

Swaney wants to see Bellwood-Antis play more like the Hollidaysburg senior did on Monday.

“We’re trying to become a more physical basketball team,” Swaney said. “Right now, we’re not there yet. We’re going to work to get there. The more physical team tonight won the game. Hollidaysburg is very well coached. Deanna does a super job.”

Fellow senior forward Clare Padamonsky also had a monster game for Hollidaysburg with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Jillian Sidney added 15 points, and Makenna Weimert scored 14 points. Both girls had seven rebounds each.

“We challenged them to play some defense and get back on transition,” Jubeck said. “They got some stops, and Bellwood didn’t get those easy transition layups that they did in the first quarter.”

Lilly Gerwert led Bellwood-Antis with 13 points and seven rebounds, but the Lady Devils were hurt by 23 turnovers.

“We came out and played hard,” Swaney said. “We did a lot of nice things in the first quarter, and then we sort of went back to some of the old things we were doing on Friday. We played a little timid at the guard position and turned it over. Our floor spacing got bad, and we didn’t run a good offense because we started freelancing too much. They are all correctible things.”

Hollidaysburg improved to 9-2, and Lightner — who missed part of last season due to injury — is hoping Monday is the start of a strong finish to the season for herself and the Lady Tigers.

“It’s so good to be back and healthy — there’s no words to describe it,” Lightner said. “There have been a lot of ups and downs, but things are definitely looking up.”

HOLLIDAYSBURG (69): Padamonsky 6 2-3 14, Lightner 9 2-5 20, Sidney 5 2-2 15, Weimert 6 2-3 14, Steiner 0 0-0 0, Hayer 1 1-1 3, Leighty 1 1-1 3, Gearhart 0 0-0 0. Totals — 28 10-15 69.

BELLWOOD-ANTIS (45): L. Gerwert 4 3-4 13, Sweigert 3 0-0 7, Cacciotti 3 0-0 7, Worthing 0 0-0 0, Sloey 4 0-2 8, Plummer 1 2-2 4, Hammond 2 0-0 4, Conlon 1 0-0 2, Johnsonbaugh 0 0-0 0, Pennington 0 0-0 0, A. Gerwert 0 0-0 0, Walker 0 0-0 0. Totals — 18 5-8 45.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Hollidaysburg 14 23 25 7 — 69

Bellwood-Antis 10 11 15 9 — 45

3-point goals: Hollidaysburg 3 (Sidney 3); Bellwood-Antis 4 (Gerwert 2, Sweigert, Cacciotti).

Records: Hollidaysburg (9-2); Bellwood-Antis (7-5).

Officials: Vicki Markiewicz, John Page, Eric Ballerino.

JV: Hollidaysburg, 39-17. High scorers–Jordan Johnsonbaugh, BA, 8; Bella Basenback, H, 9.