DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
Note: Did you know that you can sponsor one of our high school teams in Z-Land for an entire month for just $97? Not $100s for just one game, but just $97 for a month.
If you’re interested, contact us and tell us you want to support our young athletes and coaches.
Thank you to the Bellmont Girls Basketball Booster Club for their support of our coverage of the team this season.
DECATUR – The Bellmont Braves had nothing to lose Wednesday when the Warsaw Tigers, receiving first-place votes in the statewide IBCA poll and ranked #4 overall, came to Decatur. The 4A juggernaut was always going to be favored over the 3A hopefuls, but it was the kind of game the Braves would need to prepare for the upcoming state tournament.
Going into halftime trailing 31-29, the visitors realized just how good this Bellmont team was. They emerged from the visiting locker rooms with a game plan and consistently outscored the Braves in the second half, pulling away for a satisfying 72-57 win.
A bucket in traffic by Joslyn Bricker tied the game at 32 and the Tigers never looked back. Bricker led the team with an impressive 32 points, 19 of them in the second half.
Senior guard Brooke Zartman caught fire in that third period, draining four threes on her way to a 20-point night.
Warsaw’s zone defense was suffocating in the third, holding Ashley Bleke scoreless and keeping the Braves to just eight points. The Tigers turned their two-point halftime deficit into a 50-39 lead.
The Braves found more success against the zone in the fourth quarter, with three different players knocking down threes to open up things in the middle for Marianne Bleke, who led the Braves in the game with 22 points.
Alexis Neely scored seven of her 13 points for Warsaw in the fourth quarter. She was 4 of 4 from the line and the Tigers were 17 of 21 overall on the night.
Kaitlyn Barton had eight for the Braves, while Oni Krueckeberg had six. Both sophomores knocked down two threes in the game.
The Braves now sit at 17-3 and the #4 ranking in 3A. They will wrap up their regular season at Leo Friday night.
Coach Andy Heim’s team is the only team in the northern semi-state ranked in the Top 10 in 3A, with the other nine playing out of the southern half of this year’s state tournament.
All of Bellmont’s postseason games will be broadcast live and free to listeners via WZBD.
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