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With the loss in the district semifinals to Bishop McCourt, the Lady Devils shifted their attention to the state playoff tournament. Their win in the consolation game against Penns Manor pitted the Lady Devils against Our Lady of The Sacred Heart, the runner up of the WPIAL.

Despite a journey of more than two hours that took the Lady Devils to Coraopolis, near Pittsburgh, B-A was able to turn up the energy when it needed it most and come away with a 44-35 victory to advance in the PIAA 2A bracket.

After the long trip for the Lady Devils, the team got off to a sluggish start. Bellwood was only able to put up 10 points in the first quarter after the Lady Chargers got out to a 9-0 start, and was held to just 5 in the second quarter. Even with the slow offensive start, Bellwood’s scrappy defense kept them in it. Bellwood trailed by just 5 going into halftime with a low scoring affair of just 20-15.

“The first quarter was pretty rough,” said junior Chelsea McCaulsky, who scored 16. “We just had to get into the game. Them going on a 9-0 run and us coming back helped a lot.”

The Lady Devils were able to cut into OLSH’s lead in the third quarter, and entered the final period down just one point. The final quarter is what saw the Lady Devils’ offense catch fire. B-A scored 18 in the final period and was able to hold OLSH to just 8.

“In the fourth, we stopped turning the ball over,” McCaulsky said. “We played together as a team. We also ran on them.”

The junior duo of McCaulsky and Lydia Worthing stepped up again for the Lady Devils. They combined for 30 of the team’s 44 points, with senior Jaidyn McCracken throwing in 9 points of her own.

Bellwood will not advance to the next round of the state playoffs and will take on District 10 champion West Middlesex. This game will take place on Friday at West Middlesex with tickets for the game being sold online on the PIAA website.

The last time B-A took on West Middlesex was in 2019 in the PIAA championship game in Hershey, a game the Lady Devils won.

“Since we bet them in the championship, they will be coming after us,” said McCaulsky.