Bellefonte girls hold off late run by PO

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: January 22, 2019

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – They were cool under pressure.

In a contest that would go down to the wire, the Bellefonte girls basketball team hit clutch shots and free throws in fending off a very spunky Philipsburg-Osceola team Monday night 54-52.

The Mounties’ leading scorer Halle Herrington was held under her 30.0 point average by the Lady Raiders’ defense. She finished with 26 points.

Offensively, Bellefonte got double-doubles from Maddie Tice and Sara DeHaas.

Tice, who hit two triples, finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

DeHaas had a 12-point effort and brought down 11 rebounds in the win.

Teammates Mallorie Smith and Maddie Steiner followed up with eight.

Defensively, Lily Gardner shadowed Herrington for most of the night and forced her to hurry her shots and abandon the three-point shot attempts.

“Philipsburg hung around. We had our chances. We were up by 10 a couple time. But we left them back in it,” Bellefonte coach Adam Gearhart said. “It wasn’t pretty but you’ll take this.”

Bellefonte took a 5-point advantage going into the final stanza.

The Lady Mounties came out and scored two on free throws by Cassidy Hughes to pull within one start the period off, cutting it to 39-36.

Like it did for much of the game, the Lady Raiders went right to the hoop and Steiner scored on an easy shot underneath.

It was a back and forth contest throughout.

The Mounties cut it back to three on a steal and lay in by Kyleigh Kennedy.

DeHaas kept the scoring going for Bellefonte following up with two free throws.

But back came PO as Hughes found herself alone by the bucket and layed up as bucket, cutting it to 43-40 with 5:35 left.

Being in the bonus, Bellefonte hit the next 3-of-4 shots from the foul line, extending the Lady Raider lead to 46-40 with under five to play.

Again, PO battled back hitting four consecutive points to put them within striking distance 46-44 with 4:12 left.

But the Bellefonte offense was up for the challenge, going on a 4-0 run of its own by Tice and DeHaas, upping the lead back to six.

After hitting 2-of-2 from the charity stripe, Lindsey Bordas made it a 50-46 game.

After another lay in by Tice, Herrington went on her own personal 4-0 run with two runners in the lane, giving the visitors some hope at 52-50 with 30 ticks left.

Steiner and Tice hit a free throw each, putting their team up 54-50 with just 5.8 seconds left.

Herrington scores a lay up at the buzzer but it was too little too late as the Lady Raiders went into the victory.

In the first quarter, the Lady Mounties got off to a strong start late in the period, outscoring Bellefonte 14-11.

But the offense would get going in the second for Bellefonte as it posted 17 points while its defense held PO to nine. Herrington only managed four in the period.

When the intermission got underway, the Red Raiders led 28-23.

In the third, both teams played to an 11-11 stalemate, setting up the drama for the fourth quarter.

Bellefonte also took the JV contest, winning 30-17.