{"id":31068,"date":"2025-11-29T09:21:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T14:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=31068"},"modified":"2025-11-29T09:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T14:21:23","slug":"highly-regarded-spartans-flex-against-braves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/29\/highly-regarded-spartans-flex-against-braves\/","title":{"rendered":"Highly-regarded Spartans flex against Braves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RANDY HISNER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Homestead Spartans, #2 in the latest 4A girls\u2019 basketball poll, invaded the Teepee Friday night and showed why they are so highly regarded, giving the Bellmont Braves their first loss of the season, 63-40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mary Bleke gets the hoop and the foul for a three-point play in the first quarter. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But unlike in last year\u2019s 45-point loss at Homestead, the Braves let the Spartans know they were in for a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WZBD’s Randy Hisner spoke with coach Andy Heim after the loss to Homestead. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mary Bleke burned the nets for 12 first quarter points to lead the Braves (6-1) to a 17-15 lead at the first buzzer. She hit four-of-five two-pointers, a three-pointer from just right of the top of the key, and a free throw to dominate the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New storefront opening in Decatur on Black Friday!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Homestead (6-1) opened the second quarter with a drive by Myah Epps and a putback from 6-1 sophomore Suzy Perego to take a 19-17 lead, but Ashley Bleke countered with a drive from the left side to tie it. After the Spartans\u2019 Carly Moellering drove all the way from the top of the key to the hoop for a layup and a 21-19 Spartan lead, Oni Krueckeberg nailed a three from the right wing to put the Braves up again at the 4:33 mark, 22-21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kaitlyn Barton and Ashley Bleke double-team Homestead’s strong Gabby Helsom. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, that was the last lead of the night for Bellmont. The Spartans immediately went on a 12-0 tear\u2014eight of the points coming from 5-11 senior Gabby Helsom\u2014to take a 33-22 advantage with 1:16 to go. Ashley Bleke\u2019s three from the top of the key cut the lead to 33-25 with a minute left, and it stayed that way until the end of the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Homestead senior Gabby Helsom, who led all scorers with 22 points, drives hard to the bucket<\/em>. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the third quarter, Moellering\u2019s opening three and a bucket on the right block by Epps, sandwiched around a short jumper by Ashley Bleke, made it 38-27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Proudly supporting local athletes and their coverage on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Late Kitson sticks tight to Homestead star Myah Epps<\/em>. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Ashley Bleke hit a three at the 4:32 mark, and once again the Braves were within eight halfway through the third period. Though Homestead outscored the Braves 7-3 the rest of the quarter, the Braves still found themselves down by only 12 to one of the state\u2019s best teams heading into the final quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then Homestead\u2019s depth and smothering man-to-man defense wore down the Braves, and the Spartans controlled the fourth period by an 18-7 count.  Helsom, who led all scorers with 22 points, set the tone with a pair of threes and a bucket on an out-of-bounds play in the first three minutes of the quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can post up Helsom. They can have Heslom shoot threes,\u201d noted Bellmont coach Andy Heim. \u201cShe\u2019s a real matchup problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Braves’ Ashley Bleke dribbles toward the bucket a moment after getting fouled on a fast break drive. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought the first half we played really well,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you know, honestly, in the second half we didn\u2019t necessarily play bad. I thought we gave up a few buckets in transition because we didn\u2019t get back, and that\u2019s typically not the way we play. We never necessarily had a chance to tie it back up in that second half, but it could have ballooned out much earlier than what it did, and I thought we stayed playing strong. Overall, I thought that was a pretty good effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bellmont point guard Kate Kitson keeps her head up, looking for an open teammate. (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Heim conceded that the active, athletic Homestead defense caused his team problems. \u201cI thought they locked us down a little bit more on defense, and we sort of panicked on some of our shots and altered those a little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cThey move their feet really well. In that switching defense, they can switch anybody on anybody and feel like they can be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homestead\u2019s three best athletes\u2014Epps, Helsom, and Perego\u2014range from 5-10 to 6-1, and all three are strong and quick. They made it tough for the Braves to score inside, although 6-0 sophomore center Mary Bleke battled her way to 15 points, second on the team to the 18 of her sister, Ashely. They carried the offense, the rest of the team managing only seven points (Krueckeberg three, Kate Kitson two, Lanie French and Kaitlyn Barton one each).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oni Krueckebrg protects the ball while trapped by Homestead’s Myah Epps (10) and Whitney Ankenbruck (24). (Photo by Randy Hisner)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Epps scored 12 for Homestead. Moellering added nine, Perego eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homestead easily won the JV game, 64-21. Ava Billman led the Braves with nine points. Katelyn Borne had eight. Kenna Taylor led the Spartans with 27. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellmont opens NE8 play next Friday, December 5, by hosting Dekalb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANDY HISNER WZBD.com The Homestead Spartans, #2 in the latest 4A girls\u2019 basketball poll, invaded the Teepee Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,13,15,26],"class_list":["post-31068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-bellmont","tag-featured","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_5605-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C2374&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31077,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31068\/revisions\/31077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}