Unlike its first meeting with St. Marys, scoring wasn’t an issue for the Bradford boys basketball team Wednesday evening.
The Owls avenged a Jan. 6 loss at St. Marys by beating the Flying Dutch, 55-43, behind 19 points from a red-hot Talan Reese. The win snapped a three-game skid as Bradford (6-12) fights for its playoff life.
“We shot 50% from the field and had a lot of guys scoring,” Bradford head coach John Bennardi said. “It was a great team effort. Everyone did a nice job and we executed the defensive game plan. We got a lot of shots in the paint in both halves and we converted. When the ball goes in the basket, it makes things a little easier.”
Reese’s 3-point shooting was influential throughout.
His first trey was the first basket of the game and his second gave Bradford an early, 12-5 lead, sparking a Dutch timeout. Reese’s third triple then put the Owls up by nine points mid-third quarter, and from there, the lead only grew.
“We’ve been really focusing the last month-and-a-half on shooting; spending a lot more time at practice on competitive shooting,” Bennardi said. “We’ve seen an improvement in practice and we try to get looks at game speed, so I think that’s helping.”
Before Reese’s third 3-pointer, Bradford had clung to a narrow lead throughout. The advantage reached double digits for the first time soon after, however, when a steal by Chase Wineberg led to a Jake Franz layup.
Reese then connected on a fourth trey, and as he did, Bradford’s defense started to give St. Marys problems. A fifth 3-pointer from Reese put Bradford up by 15 points with five minutes to go, and as the Owls defended the Dutch tightly, they didn’t allow the looks for St. Marys to get back into the game.
“We made a slight adjustment to our man defense in the third quarter,” Bennardi said. “Once we got a lead, we made that adjustment and the guys responded to it, which was great. A lot of help defense, a lot of active hands and we got in the gaps. We rebounded pretty well overall, too, but that adjustment gave St. Marys a different look and seemed to make a difference.”
The lead soon stretched to 20, allowing for an anti-climatic fourth quarter. After missed opportunities led to a 40-35 loss to the Dutch last month, Wednesday’s effort was quite the opposite.
“We didn’t come to play. The pressure got to us,” St. Marys head coach Bill Shuey said. “Two-point game (in the first half’s final minute) and we turned the ball over three times and, now, it’s an eight-point game at halftime. We didn’t shoot the ball well and we had a lot of opportunities underneath but just missed them.”
Tanner Fox led St. Marys, which fell to 9-8 overall and 3-4 in the District 9 League, with 10 points. Quinn Gavazzi added eight points and Anthony Nedzinski scored seven.
“Bradford came to play,” Shuey said. “They knew they were going to win and we hoped to win. That was the difference. They out-muscled us and got to every loose ball, and we were passive. We’ll have to re-group and see what happens from there.”
Franz finished with nine points and Wineberg had eight for Bradford, which improved to 2-4 in the District 9 League.
Bradford’s schedule has been anything but easy, and the Owls were finally rewarded for their season-long efforts with a big win Wednesday. That victory wasn’t the end of the road, though — with their District 9 postseason chances still uncertain and four games remaining on the schedule, each will be immensely important for Bennardi’s group.
“The playoffs started today for us,” Bennardi said. “A win against a very quality team like this should prove to them that they can do it against anybody moving forward. We had good fan support, a lot of kids gave us quality minutes off the bench and our substitution patterns are coming together. A lot of positive things.”
AT BRADFORD St. Marys (43)
Fox 4 2-4 10, Davis 2 1-2 5, Nedzinski 3 0-0 7, Mitchell 1 2-2 4, Gavazzi 3 0-0 8, Coudriet 3 0-1 6. Totals
: 17 6-11 43
Bradford (55)Ward 2 1-2 5, Johnson 3 0-0 6, Reese 6 2-2 19, Franz 4 1-1 9, Warner 1 0-0 2, Wineberg 4 0-0 8, Gleason 3 0-0 6, Taylor 0 0-1 0. Totals
: 23 4-6 55 St. Marys 9 19 29 43 Bradford 14 27 41 55
Three-point goals: St. Marys 3 (Nedzinski, Gavazzi 2), Bradford 5 (Reese 5); Total fouls: St. Marys 15, Bradford 15; fouled out:
None.
JV: Bradford won.