Bradford High’s twin towers were double trouble for visiting
DuBois as Eric Arnett and Ben Lanich both registered double-doubles
in the Owls’ 64-48 District 9 League victory over the Beavers on
Friday night.

The 6-5 senior Arnett had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and the 6-4
sophomore Lanich contributed 15 points and 14 boards as the Owls
continue to be hotter than a truckload of stolen iPods in cruising
to their seventh win in the last eight contests.

“With our size we should dominate a lot of teams inside,” said
Dave Fuhrman, BHS head coach. “We’re starting to do that the last
few games and that’s a good sign. If Eric (Arnett) and Ben (Lanich)
can get double-doubles like they did tonight, what a formidable
combination they can be.”

It was Tommy Morris who got the Owls off to a quick start as the
5-11 junior buried a pair of left-side three-pointers and then
assisted on Arnett’s layup for an 8-2 lead with 6:25 left in the
opening quarter.

“It looked like we were going to take control right off the
bat,” Fuhrman stated. “Tommy (Morris) was hot and hit a couple of
big threes. Then the perimeter shots didn’t go down as the quarter
moved on and they (Beavers) got back into it.”

Bradford was enjoying a 16-7 bulge with 3:42 remaining when
DuBois scored the final eight points of the stanza to cut its
deficit to 16-15 after one.

The Owls inaugurated the second period by sandwiching a pair of
layins from Doug Rose and Arnett around Morris’ third trifecta of
the evening for a 23-15 advantage at the 6:15 juncture.

It was 25-18 when Lanich fueled an 8-2 run with three buckets in
the paint as the hosts took a 33-20 lead into the locker room at
the intermission.

The Owls kept the opposition at a respectable distance in the
third stanza with their lead fluctuating between 11 and 15 points
as Arnett canned two layups and a 12-foot banker.

“A key stretch to every game is the start of the second half,”
Fuhrman offered. “We had to come out and not let them (Beavers)
think about being in the game in the fourth quarter.”

Then with 2:20 left in the quarter, two DuBois football players
created the play of the night when a behind-the-back pass from
quarterback Ryan Liddle to the streaking tailback Rob Hanzely led
to a Hanzely layup.

Hanzely tallied six straight points to cut the Beavers’
disparity to 43-34 until baskets in the paint by Lanich, Morris and
Arnett put the Owls up 49-36 after three.

The Beavers’ Chris Johnson commenced the fourth period with a
Morris-in-his-face bomb from the left wing and then Zach Barton
added a bucket to reduce the Bradford lead to 49-41 with 6:13
showing. But a driving baseline layup by Shane Hvizdzak 35 seconds
later put the Owls back up by 10.

“They (Beavers) got it down to eight and Shane (Hvizdzak) got a
double highball screen, and dribbled to the basket for an easy
one,” Fuhrman noted. “Shane also did a nice job on Liddle in
holding him to six points.”

With 4:11 remaining DuBois (6-8, 2-4) once again pulled within
eight points, but the Owls wouldn’t allow their longtime rivals to
get any closer.

“We got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter with a lot of
silly turnovers in trying to milk the clock,” Fuhrman admitted.

Then with 12 seconds left, Rob Gault applied the frosting to the
cake when his three-pointer from the right corner gave the Owls’
their final 16-point margin.

Morris had 14 points and handed out four assists, and Hvizdzak
registered seven steals for the Owls (8-5, 5-1), who travel to St.
Marys on Wednesday (7:30 p.m.) to face unbeaten (14-0, 6-0) Elk
County Catholic.

“After we lost our league opener to Elk (61-39), our goal was to
win out and go down there in mid-January and play for the league
championship,” Fuhrman declared. “Elk is the Duke of high school
basketball around here and that’s the way they play. They come at
you in waves and never let up.”

In the preliminary contest Friday evening, the Bradford junior
varsity improved to 10-2 on the season with a 46-23 rout of the
little Beavers.

Randy Confer led the Owls with 17 points.