MIKE MACKE
WZBD.com
DECATUR – The 13 – 1 Eastside Lady Blazers, ranked #4 in 2A, travelled to Decatur to take on the 12 – 1 Bellmont Braves, ranked #8 in 3A to begin the new year. After the holiday break, the Braves showed a little rust on the offensive side of the ball scoring only 42 points for the game. However, the defense did not skip a beat as they held Eastside to 3 points in the first half and 28 points for the game to win the contest by 14 points, 42 – 28.
WZBD’s coverage of the Bellmont Braves is supported by the Bellmont Girls Basketball Booster Club as part of an ongoing effort to build excitement about the program and honor the team’s accomplishments.
The Braves led 4 – 0 when the Lady Blazers hit a free throw to make it 4 – 1. Bellmont would score the next twelve points before Eastside would score again and take a 22 – 3 lead into the locker room at halftime. Ashley and Mary Bleke led the scoring in the half with seven and five points respectively, but timely threes by Kate Kitson and Lanie French along with baskets by Hadley Caffee and Kaitlyn Barton gave the team enough offense to build the lead against a stingy Lady Blazer defense.
Bellmont scored the first four points of the second half to take their largest lead at 26 – 3 but an effective 1-3-1 zone defense stifled the Braves’ offense for much of the half. Meanwhile Eastside finally started to find some offense as they managed four fieldgoals outscoring the Braves by a 9 – 8 margin in the 3rd to make it 30 – 12 going into the final period. Several Bellmont attempts from beyond the arc looked good but were just off the mark and going inside proved to be tough sledding as the 1-3-1 zone made it difficult. In the final stanza, offense was still difficult to come by as each team traded points until Bellmont held a 41 – 22 lead with about two minutes left on the clock. A couple of late threes by Eastside closed the gap a little to get to the final tally.
Ashley Bleke led the way with fourteen points while Mary Bleke followed with nine for the Braves. French contributed eight points, Barton had five, Kitson four and Caffee two to round out the scoring. Tyler Mack had eleven to lead the Lady Blazers.
The Bellmont JV won a hard fought 33 – 30 contest to give the Braves the sweep. Seven JV players scored with Ella Schumm in double digits with 10 points to lead the team.
Bellmont travels to Bluffton to take on the 11 – 3 Lady Tigers Saturday as they go back-to-back this weekend to begin 2026.
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