Photo: Belmont’s Danny Yardemian driving to the basket.

Coming off an away loss to Winchester, Belmont High Boys’ Basketball got back on the winning side of the ledger defeating a tenacious Reading Memorial High Rockets team, 68-58, on a warm and rainy Friday night, Jan. 12, at the Wenner Field House.

Led by all-star junior shooting guard Danny Yardemian with 26 points, The Marauders’ faced an early seven-point deficit, 13-6, with time running out in the first quarter when Yardemian hit a pair of critical jumpers to spark a 6-0 run to cut the Rocket lead to 1, 13-12, at the end of eight minutes. 

With Yardemain forced off the court to have a bloody knee repaired, two Belmont underclassmen came off the bench to spark the offense with freshman Tim Minicozzi (8 points) scoring three buckets on a drive and a pair of jumpers while point guard sophomore Mac Annus (7 points) buried a Steph Curry-esque trey from long distance to up the lead to 26-18.

Senior Will Ellet (14 points including 6-8 from the free-throw line) hit one of his favorite “three” from the left side followed by a great heads-up assist by junior Ben Sseruwagi to a wide open Minicozzi with a second left in the half gave Belmont an eight-point lead, 34-26, at the end of two quarters.

Yardemian’s 11 points in the third upped the lead to 11, 55 to 44, at the end of the quarter, and when Ellet hit his second 3 of the night, the Marauders took its largest lead at 60-44 with 6:40 remaining. But Reading, which nearly beat a Winchester team that defeated Belmont three nights before, used a tight man-to-man defense led by junior Matt Sannella’s dogged covering of Yardemian (no points in the fourth) to cool down the hosts. And behind sophomore guard Matt Mulvey (14 points) and senior guard Matt Panacopoulos (10 points) with identical score lines in the quarter – a three, a hoop and two free throws – the Rockets went on a 12-0 run to cut the lead to four, 60-56, with two and half minutes to play.

But missing its chance to get closer with a missed three, the Rockets left Annus free to find an open shot that fell in for a big two points that gave the Marauders a cushion they kept to the end.

Belmont sits at 5-3 as they await its non-conference game with Bishop Stage on Sunday, Jan. 13 before travelling to Lexington on Wednesday, Jan. 16 during exam week. 

Five Marauders in double-digit scoring, down hosts Reading

Belmont saw four players scoring 11 points with a freshman lead the team in scoring for the fourth time this season as the Marauders pulled away from hosts Reading to win going away, 69-55, on Friday, Jan. 12. 

Belmont freshman Maiya Bergdorf came off the bench and score 18 points, while senior captains Greta Propp and Jenny Call along with junior guard Megan Tan all hit for 11 points. Junior center Jess Giorgio had a double/double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. 

Leading scorer for Reading and the game was junior Haley Lightbody with 20 points. Senior Kate Nestor chipped in, you guessed it, 11 points.

Belmont will take its 7-1 record into its Wednesday game with Lexington at the Wenner.