Defense helps Bellefonte girls get on track

BELLEFONTE — The Bellefonte girls’ basketball team did not have very much fun in the opening weeks of the 2016-17 season.

The Lady Raiders lost their first three games and four of their first five. They were struggling on offense and absorbed those losses by an average of 16 points, while the only win was a low-scoring, 38-37 squeaker at Huntingdon.

It takes time and patience to develop a cohesive offense, especially on a young team without a high-averaging scorer. That was time, perhaps, that the Raiders did not have.

So they came up with another solution: don’t allow the opposition to score. Bellefonte began sharpening its defenses — primarily a trapping 1-3-1 — and that has since more than paid off.

After the slow 1-4 start, only two teams — league-leading Central and Tyrone — have scored more than 60 points against the Raiders, and only one other has gone over 50. Everyone else was held to 43 points or less, and seven teams did not make it to 40. Central Mountain, twice, didn’t score 30.

Predictably, the Raiders have been winning. They have won nine of their last 12 games, and after their 47-30 win over Philipsburg-Osceola on Jan. 27 and a 38-29 win at St. Mary’s on Jan. 30 had an 11-7 overall record going in to a home game Feb. 1 against Tyrone (after Gazette press time).

The win over the Mounties is a perfect example of Bellefonte’s winning formula: sell out on defense and play a balanced offense.

P-O came into the game with a wide-open attack and with the highest scoring player, boy or girl, in the area in Halle Herrington. Herrington is averaging nearly 30 points per game and is a threat from anywhere closer than 30 feet from the basket.

“You play this team (Philipsburg), your eyes are on Herrington,” Bellefonte coach Adam Gearhart said. “They have some other girls who can score, Lacey Potter and the Hughes girls (Cassidy and Loryn) can knock down some shots, but all eyes are on Herrington.”

Mindful of the P-O sophomore, and led by the quick start of freshman Maddie Steiner, Bellefonte raced out to a 15-4 first quarter lead and 24-14 going into halftime. Herrington scored as advertised—she had all of P-O’s first-half points—but the Bellefonte defense kept everyone else from scoring.

“The girls played excellent team defense,” Gearhart said, “not only on Herrington but on all around. We have been running the 1-3-1 most of the season, that’s been our defense. We’ll go man every so often, and we’ll run a 3-2 every now and then, but 1-3-1 has been our bread and butter this year.

“We have some quick athletes and we’re looking to get steals out of that. When we ran it early (against P-O), that was the plan, push Herrington to a wing and make her go left and take her out of her comfort zone.”

In the third quarter, Bellefonte kept the pressure on Herrington and the Mounties and pushed its lead up to as much as 25 points. Herrington led a fourth-quarter Philipsburg charge, finishing with 24 of the Mounties’ 30 points for the night, but Bellefonte kept a safe margin throughout on the way to its 10^th win of the season.

“When we come up here, we never anticipate an easy game because they (the Mounties) will fight and scrap. You give girls up here an ounce of confidence, and they’ll turn it into a pound real quick.”

Steiner led the way for the Raiders with 12 points, but as has usually been the case lately for them, the scoring was balanced. Raisa Gregor (11 points) and Lauren Young (10) were also in double figures, and Mallory Smith chipped in with six.

“I don’t really care about points,” Steiner said. “It’s more about a team effort. Raisa Gregor was right behind me and the team just followed up. 

“Playing as a freshman is new, and I am just trying my best. It’s overwhelming, but the team helps you and has your back. We all get along really well.”

The Lady Raiders turn the corner now toward the final games of the season and the playoffs.

“We’re happy, but we want to go farther,” Steiner said. “We wanted more wins, but early in the season we weren’t sure of how far we could go. But now we are and we are going to keep at it.”