Bellefonte loses heartbreaker to Central Mountain in District 6 Class 5A title game
Central Mountain’s Jack Hanna stepped to the free-throw line Monday night with a chance to win the Wildcats a District 6 Class 5A title, but missed his first free throw, seemingly sealing the win for Bellefonte.
Bellefonte senior Blair Eckley-Jones pulled down the rebound, but an official blew his whistle and deemed the Raiders had committed a lane violation, giving Hanna another chance. The Central Mountain junior took advantage, made both ends of the 1-and-1, and closed out his team’s 53-52 win over Bellefonte in the district title game at Bald Eagle Area High School.
“We lost that game on fundamentals,” Bellefonte head coach Rick Hall said. “... The hard part is, when you get in postseason play — I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years — if you don’t win the state title you end the season on a loss. ... They were two points away from making history, but it still comes back to fundamentals.”
Both teams began Monday night’s matchup hot from all over the floor, but it was Central Mountain’s range that gave the Wildcats an early lead. They made four 3-pointers in the game’s first quarter and that allowed them to put 19 on the scoreboard, to the Raiders’ 18.
Hayden Pardoe led the Wildcats with eight points, including two of the 3-pointers, and it was Blair Eckley-Jones who kept the Raiders close in the opening minutes. He scored nine of his team’s first 18 points and was a force on the glass, pulling down several rebounds on the offensive end to earn multiple possessions for Bellefonte.
His team’s hot start was stymied near the halfway point of the first quarter, when Central Mountain switched to a 3-2 zone defense, making it difficult for Eckley-Jones’ teammates to get him the ball in the post, where he does most of his damage.
“The problem was early in the game Blair was outside too much,” Hall said. “At halftime I told him, ‘you gotta get inside.’ ... In the second half when he started touching the ball inside the zone, positive things started happening.”
The Wildcats continued to keep the Raiders at arm’s length in the second quarter while limiting Eckley-Jones to a single point. It wasn’t just the senior forward’s scoring that came down, either. The hot start began to stall on both ends of the court, but Central Mountain’s ability to get to the rim and finish broadened its lead.
The Wildcats, led by Pardoe’s 11 halftime points, were able to extend their lead to five and go into the game’s final 16 minutes up 32-27.
He and his teammates managed to hit five 3-pointers in the half to account for 15 of their 32 points, but it was ultimately their ability to get near the rim and finish those opportunities that created extra separation.
The second half began with much of the same for the Wildcats. They leaned on their zone defense to make life difficult for Bellefonte and it continued to pay off on that end of the court. The Raiders were unable to get many post touches for Eckley-Jones, who scored four points in the quarter, including two at the foul line.
Seemingly every time the Raiders senior had the ball within 12 feet of the rim, the Central Mountain defense collapsed, with all five players getting a hand near the Bellefonte star.
The pressure the Wildcats applied led to a Central Mountain breakaway opportunity and a fast-break dunk for senior Ashton Probst to make it a 43-40 game heading into the game’s final minutes.
The Raiders pushed all the way back in the fourth quarter as Eckley-Jones continued to make his mark on the game while senior guard Ty Kroell spaced the floor from the perimeter. Kroell finished the game with three 3-pointers, forcing Central Mountain to get out on the perimeter and guard him tightly, giving Eckley-Jones space to operate in the middle.
The Raiders were able to get the lead at 50-48 with just over three minutes left, then took advantage of not having a shot clock to drag the time down to 1:19 in the game before Eckley-Jones was fouled near the rim on a shot attempt. He made one of his two attempts to make it a 51-48 lead, giving the ball back to the Wildcats in a one-possession game.
A turnover and subsequent foul gave Bellefonte a chance to extend its lead, but senior guard Nicholas Way missed the front end of a 1-and-1 after earning a steal.
Central Mountain couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity, with Pardoe missing a 3-pointer. A D.J. McCaslin free throw made it a 52-48 game before Probst came up big for the Wildcats with a 3-pointer, cutting it to 52-51 with 13.6 seconds remaining.
A Bellefonte turnover and foul gave Hanna the aforementioned opportunity at the line and the lane violation all but ended the game.
Despite the loss, Hall said his team has plenty to be proud of from what it has accomplished.
“We’ve come a long way together,” Hall said of his seniors. “They’ve set the bar for Bellefonte basketball. I appreciate everything they’ve done for the program, for me, and for setting the bar for the younger kids. It’s a hell of a senior group.”
Central Mountain 53, Bellefonte 52
CM: Probst 18, Pardoe 13, Brett Gerloch 7, Cayde McCloskey 6, Hanna 5, Essex Taylor, 4
B: Eckley-Jones 18, Kroell 13, Gannon Brungard 10, McCaslin 7, Way 2, Cole Crissman 2
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 11:21 PM.
