BROOKVILLE – The home team can usually count on the foul line to
be an ally, but that wasn’t the case Tuesday night for
Brookville.

The Blue Raiders went to the charity stripe only twice the
entire night while Bradford sank 18 of 26 free throws on the way to
a 66-49 District 9 League victory.

“Getting 26 foul shots on the road while the home team shoots
only two doesn’t happen often,” said Dave Fuhrman, Bradford coach.
“We were 18-for-26 at the foul line and that’s a big night for us.
We attacked the basket and drew the fouls. We stressed shooting our
foul shots before the game.”

Fuhrman also pointed out that the final score is somewhat
deceiving.

“The game was much closer than it looks,” he explained. “We were
a little lethargic at the beginning and then snapped out of it.
Brookville is a good team and actually had the lead in the third
quarter. We just had a big fourth quarter, outscoing them
26-13.

“Ryan LaBrozzi got off to sort of a slow start, but picked it up
in the second half with 13 of his 18 points,” noted Fuhrman. “Ten
of those points came in the fourth quarter.

“Tommy Morris had a nice game with 18 points, five assists,
three steals, one block and nine rebounds,” he added. “He played
well offensively, took the ball to the basket and just did a lot of
good things for us tonight.”

Ben Lanich led the Owls on the boards with 12 rebounds and
scored 10 points to post a double-double.

“We got contributions from a lot of the other guys, too,”
Fuhrman lamented. “This was a good win for us, especially on the
road. We shot 49 percent from the floor (23-47) and are getting
better.”

Tyler Ross’ 13 points led three Blue Raiders in double
figures.

The Owls, now 3-5, will be idle until Dec. 28 when they face
Olean in the first round of the IAABO tournament at St. Bonaventure
University.

“Tonight was the last game of a pretty intense stretch for us,”
Fuhrman pointed out. “Now we have a little time off before the
IAABO tournament. Olean is ranked No. 1 in its class in New York
State. We will have to be ready for the challenge.”

Bradford and Olean will play at 7:45 p.m., while the early game
in the large school division is a matchup between Jamestown (N.Y.)
and Grover Cleveland from Buffalo, starting at 6 p.m.