ST. MARYS – The theme in Wednesday night’s big District 9 League
match-up between Elk County Catholic and Bradford High was
determination and the Crusaders refused to lose on their home
floor.
As it were, the Owls played inspired basketball and made the
eventual 76-69 Elk victory a real treat for those in
attendance.
ECC coach Aaron Straub said after the Crusaders routed Bradford
on its home floor about a month ago that when the Owls came to St.
Marys it would be an entirely different ball game.
Was he ever right about that.
Elk’s stellar guard Jesse Bosnik put the Owls in a eight-point
hole right off the bat, converting a steal into a lay-up and
canning a pair of deep threes.
After a BHS time-out, Josh Salter added an athletic tip-in
follow for a 10-0 advantage.
Showing the first hints of a resolve BHS would maintain
throughout the game, the Owls rallied back with a 10-4 run behind
sophomore Ben Lanich’s tough play inside and buckets from Tom
Morris, Shane Hvizdzak and Ryan LaBrozzi.
A pair of Tony Lecker free throws and a corner three by Kyle
Mahoney undermined two Morris freebies and it was Elk 19-12 after
one.
The hosts pushed their lead back up to nine points at 23-14 at
the 6:24 mark of the second.
The Owls stormed back on two trifectas from Morris, a
three-point play by Eric Arnett, a Hvizdzak jumper and four points
from Doug Rose to wrest the lead at 29-27.
It looked like the visitors would take a lead into the break,
but Mahoney drained another corner three out of Elk’s effective
spread offense to make it 33-32 ECC.
Three minutes into the third Bradford gouged a four-point lead
at 39-35 on tip-in by Arnett, a three off the dribble by Hvizdzak
and an elbow jump shot by Morris.
A 6-0 spurt put Elk back up 43-41 with 3:41 showing in the
third.
Morris then went baseline for two to tie it once again, but
Bosnik found Mahoney at the left block on a crowd-quieting no-look
pass for a 45-43 score.
Moments later Morris converted in a one-on-one situation with a
quick crossover on the break and it was 45-45, but Bosnik closed
the quarter with four more to make it 49-45 going into the last
eight minutes.
Elk lit up the scoreboards with 27 fourth-quarter points and
while the Owls posted 24 of their own, it just wasn’t enough to
pull out the upset of the league-leading and unbeaten
Crusaders.
“Bradford played great,” Straub admitted. “They came in with a
great game plan. They’re obviously well coached and well prepared.
Dave (Fuhrman) does a great job.
“We feel very fortunate to come up with a win. Bradford played
really well, shot well and played hard.”
BHS coach Dave Fuhrman was equally impressed with his team’s
effort.
“It’s a shame (to lose) because I thought our guys played hard.
I’m disappointed with the loss but I couldn’t be happier. I thought
our kids gave a good account of themselves and there are a lot of
positives to take from this game.”
Some of those positives have to include another double-double
from Lanich (12 rebounds, 10 points), a gutty team-high 23 points
from Morris and 15 points from senior point guard Hvizdzak.
The Owls also shot 56 percent from the floor – what Fuhrman said
was one of Bradford’s “best shooting games all year against a good
defensive team. They also limited a formidable offensive ECC team
to 37 percent shooting.
“Lanich had another double-double and he’s been doing that on a
consistent basis,” Fuhrman praised.
“Morris played a heck of a game. He made some nice reads out
there offensively and he attacked the basket well. Shane played
well offensively and he played a lot of minutes.”
Bosnik paced the Crusaders’ charge with 23 points, Mahoney threw
in 12 points and Kevin Genevro and Lecker were good for 11 marks
each.
“Elk has just a little bit deeper bench than we do right now,”
Fuhrman observed.
“Even though (Elk) has won so many games easily that everyone
wondered what they would do when they were challenged, but I know
the kind of kids they are, knew they would respond in a tight game
and they did.
“Basketball is a game played on an 84-foot court with two
10-foot rims and it boils down to your personnel versus their
personnel. But, our kids showed a lot of character.”
Bradford, 8-6 overall and 5-2 in league play, is on the road
against Brookville in another D-9 clash Friday at the Owls’
Nest.
The Crusaders, 15-0 overall and 7-0 in the league, will visit
DuBois on Saturday.
