2 teammates score 18 each in Bellefonte boys basketball’s victory over Philipsburg-Osceola
Bellefonte found itself down 26-21 at the half, deadlocked in a battle with rival Philipsburg-Osceola on the road on Monday night.
The Red Raiders needed a clutch performance, and Jacob McConnell, Derek Cox and Cole Crissman answered, scoring a combined 34 points in the second half. Bellefonte won 58-49 to improve to 4-6 on the season. Crissman and McConnell finished with a team-high 18 points and Cox had 14 in the win.
“We went into the half on a bad note and no one likes going into the half losing,” Crissman said. “We know we’re better than this team, we just had to come out and show it and I think we started getting our rhythm. I started finding my shot and the whole team played really good together. I’m proud of all of us.”
Crissman is excited for the prospect of Cox and McConnell to continue to build Bellefonte boys basketball back to being a powerhouse. Both players are juniors and have a great deal of confidence to score among the frontcourt defenders in the paint.
“All of the time outside of the season and during the season and every day (makes us better),” McConnell said. “It’s just coming together now nicely because we’re all playing so well together.”
Philipsburg-Osceola began the game with 16-9 lead. Oliver Harpster had five points, Jacob DeSimone added four points and Lucas Peterson had three. McConnell finished off the quarter for Bellefonte with four points, followed by a 3-point field goal from Cox and Luke Fisher had a layup for two points.
The Mounties continued to push into the half with a 26-21 advantage, led by DeSimone’s eight points in the second quarter. On the flipside, the Red Raiders were led by McConnell with four more points, along Alex Ebeling and Crissman adding four points of their own.
Bellefonte took over the game in the third quarter by gaining a 37-32 lead, boosted by the efforts of McConnell, Cox and Crissman. DeSimone’s efforts in the third quarter were nullified by the suppressive defense of the Red Raiders. Bellefonte pulled away in the fourth quarter, despite Philipsburg-Osceola’s push to cut Bellefonte’s lead down to 42-41. Crissman hit three of his four 3-point field goals in the fourth and McConnell made six free throws to ice the game.
Philipsburg-Osceola head coach TJ Anderson felt that Bellefonte showed a lot of heart entering into the second half. While his team held a lead deep into the third quarter, it soon lost it following a Bellefonte timeout. He’d like to see his team finish the game off in the future.
“They came here, they showed heart, they played well, we had a 5-point lead, they dug in and they made shots,” Anderson said. “We didn’t do anything differently than we did in the first half. They wanted to win and that’s what it came down to.”
Philipsburg-Osceola is set to take on Hollidaysburg on Thursday in a road game at 7:30 p.m., while Bellefonte will host Tyrone at the same time.
Bellefonte 58, Philipsburg-Osceola 49
B (4-6): Crissman 18, McConnell 18, Cox 14, Ebeling 4, Fisher 4
PO (4-6): DeSimone 21, Johnson 10, Harpster 7, Peterson 5, Mason 4, Meyers 2
