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(Scott Plank)

If you look up the definition of a thriller, you’ll find the words, “a very exciting contest,” but after last nights basketball game, you’ll also find a picture of Bellwood-Antis’ double overtime win against Williamsburg.

The Blue Devils stole, and stole is the correct term, a win against a talented Williamsburg Blue Pirates squad 81-78 in a game that went two overtimes.

“It was fun (playing in double OT). I didn’t like getting home at 10:30, but it was still a fun game,” said senior Trent Walker, who single-handedly willed B-A to the victory in extra frames, scoring a career-high 46.

B-A improved to 4-1.

Despite this game becoming a thriller at the end, it didn’t start that way. In fact, the home Blue Pirate crowd wouldn’t have been forgiven if they thought the game would end in a blow out.

The Blue Devils came out gunning from the tip off and it showed, with Bellwood-Antis taking a 23-12 lead into the second quarter. The Blue Pirates made some second-quarter adjustments and outscored the Blue Devils by a point, but B-A still had a 10 point lead by halftime.

Bellwood-Antis wouldn’t be able to keep up their form in the third quarter and Williamsburg nearly erased their deficit, cutting it to three points.

The Blue Pirates weren’t done, and the fourth quarter ended up being the most exiting part of the game.

Williamsburg battled back to take their first lead of the second half off of a jumper in the paint, and with a minute left, it looked like a tight contest would be in store.

B-A trailed in the final seconds of regulation before Walker scored to tie it and send it into extra frames.

There he scored 15 of the 16 points the Devils would get over the two extra sessions.

Walker said a lot of his success was due to matchups.

“They had a smaller kid matched up on me, so I was able to drive easily,” he said. “I also hit some deep threes and scored on some fast breaks. Clay (Engle) and Tanner (Worthing) fouled out so I had a lot of work to do at the end of the game, and in OT.”

In the second overtime, Walker made one basket in the lane and followed it up with a deep three-pointer to help put the game away with under two minutes to play.

Through the early part of the season, no one has found an answer for Walker’s scoring yet. After scoring just 12 against Tyrone in the opener, he’s scored 34, 20, 27 and now 46.

Walker said he doesn’t care if he remains the team’s focal point, as long as there is team success.

“I’m not planning to be able to put up 30 a game. That will slow down. I just hope to keep winning,” he said.