Bradford more than doubled its shots at the basket from 33 in
the opener to 71 in the championship game. The problem was the Owls
only made 19 of those.

Conversely, Highlands knocked down 55 percent of its shots en
route to a 25-point 79-54 win over Bradford to claim the Tip-Off
Tournament title Saturday.

Bradford shot the ball equally poorly from the free throw line
at just 47 percent (14-for-30).

“Just look at those two stats alone and that was the difference
in the game,” commented Dave Fuhrman, BHS coach. “I thought we got
some good, open looks and we didn’t knock them down.”

The Owls were playing out of a hole from the get-go as the Rams
raced out to a 24-9 advantage after one period.

Highland all-tournament selections Dan Porter (tourney MVP) and
Reece Mabery keyed the fast start, scoring 10 and 11 points,
respectively, in the quarter.

The visitors led by as many as 22 points in the second and
Cornell Thomas’ slam dunk in the final seconds kept the margin at
19 points, 41-22, at the half.

Bradford strung together a few baskets several times in the
second half, but the Rams responded each time to keep the Owls at
bay.

Powering the Highlands offensive onslaught were Porter and
Mabery. Porter, a 6-0 sophomore guard finished with 20 points and
Mabery, a 5-11 junior guard, poured in 27 marks. Each player
contributed four three-pointers.

“Their guards killed us,” Fuhrman admitted. “Every time we’d
make a little run they’d answer.”

Thomas, one of eight other Rams in the scoring column, added 13
points inside for Highlands.

“They’re deep,” Fuhrman observed. “They have nine or 10 guys to
run at you and they’re a very talented offensive team.”

Bradford was led by Ben Lanich with a double-double of 18
rebounds (10 offensive) and 15 points. All-tourney selections Ryan
LaBrozzi and Tom Morris added 13 points and nine marks,
respectively, while Randy Confer pulled down 11 rebounds.

“Lanich was much more active tonight,” Fuhrman emphasized. “He
was going to the offensive boards well early in the game.

“Randy came off the bench to give us 11 rebounds, so that was
good to see.”

The runner-up Owls committed 20 or more turnovers in both games
of the tournament.

“We’ve got to clean that up,” Fuhrman remarked. “I knew they
(Highlands) could convert the turnovers into points and Latrobe
didn’t do that.

“Defensively we didn’t come out with the same energy. A lot of
their shots were stand-still, wide open looks that weren’t
challenged.

“I knew we were going to have to play better (than they did
against Latrobe), but we learned a lot about our team from these
two games.”

Erie McDowell claimed third place in the tourney, defeating
Latrobe 61-55 in the consolation contest.

McDowell placed junior Zach Spronatti on the all-tourney team,
while Latrobe senior Brent Heckel was also selected.

The Owls (1-1) will take the court again Wednesday hosting
Warren in a non-conference tilt at 7:30 p.m.