RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
LEO – The Bellmont Braves downed conference rival Leo, 56-33, on the road Friday night to clinch second place in the NE8 with a 6-1 record.
Though Leo is no slouch (15-6, 3-4 in the NE8), the Braves (18-3) made the Lions the 14th team they have beaten by at least 20 points this season.
Lanie French started the game with the hot hand, hitting a pair of short jumpers and a three from the right corner to help stake the Braves to a 13-3 lead at the 4:29 mark. Buckets by Ashley Bleke, Kaitlyn Barton, and Kate Kitson pushed the lead to 19-8 with 2:16 left. A pair of baskets by Mary Bleke in the paint wrapped up the Braves’ scoring in the period as they took a 23-13 lead at the first stop. Senior Leah Shappell hit two three-pointers in the period to lead Leo’s offense.
Both teams’ offenses operated in low gear in the second quarter, the Braves claiming the advantage by an 8-3 count to almost double up the Lions at the half, 31-16.
Leo’s Emma Connally opened the third quarter with a slick reverse layup. Teammates Mackenzie Collins (steal and layup) and Leah Shappell (aggressive right-side drive) added buckets to spur a mini-run of 6-2 to close the gap to 33-22, but that was as close as the Lions would get. Bellmont responded with a 13-2 tear the rest of the quarter and led 46-24 heading into the final frame. It was again French who sparked the rally, scoring the Braves’ last eight points of the quarter on a baseline drive and two three-pointers, both from the right corner.
Despite the quarter-ending run, Bellmont coach Andy Heim was displeased with the dry spell that saw his team score just two points in the first four and a half minutes of the second half. “When we get stale, I’ve got to figure out something to do to get us out of that funk because we’ve fallen into that in a handful of games,” he said. “It seems like when one of us stops moving, we all stop moving. And that’s a problem.”
The fourth quarter was a wash, the Braves outscoring the Lions by just one, 10-9.
After giving up 13 points in the first quarter, the vaunted Bellmont defense held Leo to single digits in each of the last three quarters. Still, Heim was less than totally satisfied. He said he felt about 50-50 on his team’s defensive effort. The Braves played solid defense in spots, he thought, but he saw some weaknesses.
“I did not think we guarded the Collins girl very well,” he said. “She threw in some shots where we were playing some pretty good defense, and they went in, but I thought that we let her get to the rim way too much. I’m going to have to look and see on film what it was.”
The Braves forced the Lions into 18 turnovers while committing 14.
Mary Bleke led the Braves in scoring with 18 points on 7-of-8 field goal shooting and 4-of-6 from the free throw line. French scored 15, Ashley Bleke 12, and Kitson 5. Oni Krueckeberg and Barton added three each.
Collins led Leo with 11. Shappell had 10, Connally 6, Luci Schott 4, Stella Schelm 2.
The Braves were 15-for-28 (54%) on twos, 6-for-19 (32%) on threes, and 8-for-12 (67%) on free throws. The Lions were 9-for-30 (30%) on twos, 2-for-8 (25%) on threes, and 9-for-13 (69%) from the line.
Bellmont won the JV game, 37-3. Katelyn Borne led the Braves with 12 points. Audrey Grimm had seven.
The Braves will close out the regular season Saturday with a makeup game with Angola at home. The JV game will start at noon, the varsity to follow at 1:30 P.M.
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