Mar 16, 2017 4 min read

GREENSBURG – The Bellwood-Antis High School girls basketball team has figured out the mathematics of its sport. And the way the Blue Devils implement it, the formula doesn’t seem very complicated.

Three beats two any day.

Bellwood-Antis, the District 6 runner-up, made 10 three-point field goals – by five different players – and combined the long-range shooting with an aggressive pressure defense to knock off Chartiers-Houston 80-66 in a PIAA Class AA second-round playoff game Thursday night at Hempfield High School.

The win sends Bellwood-Antis (24-4) into the quarterfinals Saturday against Chartiers-Houston’s section rival Our Lady of Sacred Heart. Chartiers-Houston finishes the season with a 24-3 record and a WPIAL championship. The Bucs had their 18-game winning streak end as they lost for the first time to a Class AA opponent.

In addition to its advantage from long range, Bellwood-Antis had another numerical edge. The Blue Devils had two big scorers while Chartiers-Houston’s offense relied heavily on only one, junior forward Alexa Williamson, especially after point guard Jala Walker was called for three fouls in the game’s first four minutes.

Senior guard Karson Swogger, a St. Francis recruit and a 2,000-point scorer for her career, led the Blue Devils with 30 points. Alli Campbell, a freshman guard who already has four Division I scholarship offers, followed with 25 points.

Swogger and Campbell combined for seven of B-A’s three-pointers. The Blue Devils made six treys in the first half and nine in the first three quarters.

“Campbell is one of the best freshmen I’ve ever seen,” C-H coach Laura Montecalvo said.

Swogger and Campbell offset Williamson, who played a superb game, scoring a game- and career-high 35 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

“What we saw was that they can’t shoot from outside, but we did know that No. 24 (Williamson) is the real deal,” Bellwood-Antis coach Jim Swaney said of the Bucs. “We wanted to help on her because our tallest starter is 5-10 and our inside players are 5-8. We couldn’t match up with Williamson. And, I think we did a good job on her.”

The game, from Chartiers-Houston’s perspective, was decided in the first quarter when Walker got into foul trouble. She drew two fouls – her second and third – in a 13-second span of the first quarter and went to the bench shortly thereafter, with B-A leading 10-6.

“That was really the difference for us,” Montecalvo said. “Jala’s our best ball-handler.”

Without their point guard and the player who was guarding Swogger on defense, the Bucs got caught up in a fast-paced game because of the Blue Devils’ press and committed 14 first-half turnovers compared to B-A’s three.

“You can’t give away that many possessions, especially against a team that has six kids who can shoot the three,” Montecalvo said. “We didn’t take care of the ball. A lot of times we were out of control. … The pace was definitely their pace.”

With Walker sitting, Bellwood-Antis pushed out to a 26-12 lead after one quarter and increased the advantage to 44-21 in the second quarter.

“That was a big point in the game,” Swaney said of Walker’s third foul. “She’s very athletic. We said in practice for four days that we didn’t want (Williamson) and (Walker) to stand and block shots. We wanted to attack them and get them in foul trouble. We followed the game plan.”

The Bucs used a 12-2 run – seven points by Williamson – to close to within 13 late in the first half, but Swogger drove for a basket that gave Bellwood-Antis a 48-33 lead at halftime.

Chartiers-Houston used every defense it had in its arsenal. The Bucs opened in man-to-man, switched to a zone, tried some triangle-and-two, but nothing slowed the Blue Devils. Swogger and Campbell combined for 14 third-quarter points and the Blue Devils answered C-H’s late first-half run by scoring seven of the first 11 points in the second half.

The Bucs did use their press to force turnovers in the fourth quarter, but the outcome had already been decided. C-H committed 28 turnovers to B-A’s 14.

“We thought that if they came in man-to-man, then we could pick up some fouls on their two key players,” Swaney said. “When Walker got in her foul situation, we increased our full-court pressure.”

Walker finished with 12 points. Keaira Walker had 11 rebounds and four points.

Mikayla Carles scored 10 points – all in the first half – for Bellwood-Antis.