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Last night in Ligonier, the Bellwood-Antis basketball team beat Ligonier Valley Rams 73-57 in the quarterfinals of the District 6 3-A playoffs.

The Blue Devils will now advance to play the winner of the No. 1 seed Richland and the No. 9 Penns Valley on February 27.

Along with that, B-A accomplished a goal set out by Coach Brent Gerwert from day one this season by qualifying for the PIAA playoffs for the third season in a row. This year’s seniors become the first Blue Devil boys team to hit that milestone.

Four teams advance from 3-A.

“It feels relieving to have finally accomplished that as a big goal for our season,” said senior Ethan McGee. “It’s a proud moment for the seniors to come out as bad as it could get at 5-17 as freshmen to do something no other group has done.”

Senior Jarrett Taneyhill led the Devils in scoring with 24 points and 12 rebounds.

“The game was really satisfying because we got very close to playing four complete quarters,” said Taneyhill. “It always feels good to go into a game as the underdog and come out on top.”

B-A was the 5-seed heading in, while Ligonier was No. 4.

In the first quarter both teams came out making shots, with Bellwood trailing Ligoneir Valley by three going into the second quarter, 18-15.

In the second quarter B-A showed better defense, holding Valley to seven points.  Taneyhill scored 16 and took it to the Rams, lifting B-A to a 32-25 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter Bellwood took a twenty point lead and ultimately won the game.

“We came out with high intensity and focused on one goal, which was getting the win,” said McGee. “We clicked on defense to hold a good offense, which created easy buckets on the other end.”