BELLEFONTE — After getting off to a horrendous start this season, the Bellefonte boys’ basketball team is showing signs of righting its ship.
Hosting Philipsburg-Osceola on Friday night, the Red Raiders broke out to an early nine-point lead, extended that to 13 by halftime and kept P-O at bay in the second half en route to a 70-57 victory.
Guard Jason Jarvis led the way for Bellefonte with 24 points, mostly on slashing drives or breakaways, and Andy Stover added 12, but it was the frantic full-court and half-court pressure defenses that caused many P-O turnovers and forced shots that turned the tide for Bellefonte.
Bellefonte led 16-5 at the end of the first quarter and then built a 37-24 lead at the half. In the second half, the Raiders led by as much as 25 points before a late push by Philipsburg pulled it to within 13 in the last minutes.
Bellefonte is now only one game under .500 after starting the season by losing five of its first six games. The Red Raiders have a chance at evening their record today at Marion Center.
“We allowed our young kids to play some basketball,” Bellefonte coach Darin Hazel said, “and they are getting better each and every game. That has really helped us. A lot of guys stepped up tonight.
“We have high expectations. That is one of the challenges for the coaches, to get the kids to buy into it because sometimes it looks like you’re nitpicking every little thing, but it’s no different than what coach Pat Chambers is doing at Penn State — challenging his players to get better.”
The game started with Jarvis, Stover and Skylor Wian combining to score the first nine points of the night that put Bellefonte ahead 9-0. The Raiders extended that lead to 20-5 late in the first quarter when Jarvis sank two free throws.
P-O then went on a 10-2 run to make the score 22-15 early in the second quarter, and then closed to within 24-19 after a jumper by Matt Carpin. Bellefonte was able to regroup and after a breakaway by Jarvis, a three-pointer by Stover and another three by Jarvis, Bellefonte leaped to a 37-24 lead into the locker room.
“This is what we have done all year,” Philipsburg coach Dave McKnight said referring to his team’s slow start. “It’s discouraging. The kids say that they are ready to play and we come out and make too many turnovers, give up too many easy baskets, and we didn’t play defense tonight. They scored 37 points at halftime and 70 in the game. That’s not our game.”
Things did not get better for P-O in the second half, even though monster efforts by Cole Curtis (25 points) and Taylor Golemboski (17 points) were able to keep the Mounties within reasonable striking distance.
P-O climbed to within 12 at 44-32 with just over three minutes to play in the third quarter, but Wian, Jarvis, and Nu Nu Buey all scored in an 8-0 run to put the Raiders ahead by 20 points.
“We expected them (P-O) to come out and play hard,” Jarvis said. “They are a smaller team, so we expected them to come out and try to stop us. We just rose to the occasion.
“Since they are a quicker team, I thought this would be more of an outside shooting game, but the lanes kept opening up, and I took it to the hole.”
P-O was able to make a run in the later stages of the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run that brought it to within 68-53, but Bellefonte was able to run out the remaining time for the victory.
“We have Merion Center (tonight),” Hazel said, “St. Marys Monday, Bald Eagle Wednesday, so we are going to have to keep plugging away and keep getting better.”
