OLEAN, N.Y. – Bradford High became the 13th straight victim of
the unbeaten Olean Huskies, suffering a 56-43 defeat Tuesday
night.

Olean (13-0) showed the Owls a tough night in the paint, where
the Huskies’ Zachary Moore scored most of his game-high 24 points.
He went 12-for-18 from the foul line alone.

Guard Tommy Morris led Bradford with 19 points while Eric Arnett
tossed in 10 tallies.

After a defensive first quarter yielded a 9-6 lead to Olean, it
looked as if Bradford would come alive late in the second quarter
when the Owls’ Morris drove to the lane and was fouled by Olean’s
Sam Moore. Morris made his free throws to cut the Huskies’ lead to
19-13 with 2:15 left in the half.

However, Olean’s A.J. McFadden answered at the other end with a
turnaround layup to give the hosts a 21-13 lead.

Three possessions later, Morris came up with a steal for the
Owls and was fouled on the floor. His free throws brought Bradford
to within eight points of Olean (23-15) at the half. Morris ended
the first half with eight points.

Guard Shane Hvizdzak started the third quarter on a high note
for the Owls as he drove to the lane and put in a layup to cut the
Olean lead to 23-17.

Less than two mintues later, Arnett found himself open for a
three-pointer and converted as he cut Olean’s lead to 25-20.

With just under five minutes to go in the third quarter,
Bradford grabbed its own rebound off a missed three-point attempt
and kicked the ball out to Morris, who nailed a bucket from
downtowne to cut the Huskies’ lead to 25-23.

After the Owls held Olean scoreless on its next possession, it
was Morris to the hoop again, as he scurried around defenders for a
layup under the basket to tie the score at 25-25. Morris also drew
a foul on the way to the basket but couldn’t convert on the foul
shot.

With Bradford making its march, the Huskies went back to the
paint, feeding 6’3″, 205-pound forward Zachary Moore for a layup to
make it 27-25 Olean with just over 4:00 remaining in the third
quarter.

A pair of turnovers and missed three-pointers later, Bradford
watched Olean extend its lead to nine points when Brian Shoup sank
a pair of free throws to give the Huskies a 34-25 advantage.

With 27 seconds remaining in the third, an aggressive Olean
defense committed its eighth team foul, sending the Owls’ Arnett to
the charity stripe. Arnett bucketed one of two shots to cut the
Olean lead to 34-26.

After Bradford’s first possession of the fourth stanza came up
empty, Arnett took a brisk pass inside to the hoop on a layup. The
6’5″ center quickly got up from his bounce off the floor to see
Olean’s lead cut to 37-28.

The Owls’ run, however, was short-lived as Huskies guard Joshua
Malick nailed a three-pointer at the other end to give Olean a
40-28 lead.

Despite steady attempts to mount a final comeback, the Owls
could only pull within 13 points of the Huskies on a Ben Lanich
deuce to cut the lead to 47-34 with 4:00 left in regulation.

Olean continued its staunch defensive play and put an
exclamation point at the end of the game’s sentence when McFadden
drove to the basket off an Owls turnover for a slam dunk to give
Olean a 54-41 lead with 1:30 remaining.

“We shot the ball very poorly (13-for-52, 25 percent),” BAHS
coach Dave Fuhrman said. “We were 2-for-20 on three-point
attempts.

“Our guys played hard. We couldn’t make our shots. I thought we
did a good job in the beginning of the third quarter when we tied
the game.

“They (Olean) switched to a 2-3 zone and that was kind of the
move that won the game. It was a good move on their part to switch
to the zone. We struggled to shoot the ball offensively.

“After watching them beat us twice by double-digit margins they
are the better team. This Olean team plays better together and
plays very good defense. We just didn’t put the ball in the
basket.”

Arnett had 12 rebounds and Morris had nine boards to lead the
Owls.

Bradford (9-7) hosts Punxsutawney on Friday.