Bellhy’s Late Basket Saves Presidents At Grove City
GROVE CITY, Pa. – Junior guard Zach Bellhy (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) poured in a career-high 33 points and his final basket of the night with 4.3 seconds left gave Washington & Jefferson a 67-66 PAC men’s basketball win at Grove City on Wednesday evening.
The Presidents (6-9, 2-4 PAC) led by as many as 21 points, but had to hold off a late Grove City (6-8, 2-4 PAC) rally to earn the conference road win. The Wolverines trailed 62-47 with 5:50 remaining; however, a furious rally gave the hosts a 66-65 advantage with 20 seconds left only to see Bellhy follow with the game winner shortly after.
Bellhy scored 18 points during a first half in which W&J held GCC to 31 percent shooting while building a 38-24 lead.
Bellhy’s free throws with 9:10 left in the game pushed the lead to 17 points (58-41), but the Wolverines held W&J to three field goal attempts and four points over the next 6:59.
Mitch Marmelstein and Brett Matson canned back-to-back three-pointers to tie the game (64-64) with just over a minute left, but freshman guard Andy Carter (North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin) put W&J back in front with 1-of-2 free throws with 32 seconds left.
Nate Rambacher gave the Wolverines their first lead since scoring the first basket of the game 12 seconds later, but Bellhy sealed the win with his game winner. GCC fired a late 26-foot, three-point attempt, but it missed and W&J celebrated its second PAC win.
Bellhy made 11-of-17 shots overall and 5-of-7 from three-point range. He added eight rebounds and three steals. Carter was the only other President in double figures with 11 points. W&J shot 45 percent from the field (23-of-51).
Marmelstein led the Wolverines with 23 points. He knocked down six triples for Grove City which shot 11-of-29 from beyond the arc.
W&J closes out a three-game road swing on Saturday at Geneva (3:00 pm).
