For about three quarters Friday night Bradford High played like
Owl teams of times passed, turning over the opponent’s offense and
then scoring the basketball in transition.

The Owls’ scrambles and man-to-man defenses created a lot of
easy looks for the hosts and they converted them in a 75-44
District 9 league and Senior Night rout of DuBois.

“Our pressure really got to them in the second quarter,”
recalled Dave Fuhrman, Owls’ coach. “We turned them over and got
the ball in the open court for some easy baskets.

“We’ve been working on our scrambles defense and we’ve been
picking the teams we use that against. DuBois is young and
inexperienced, especially at the guard spots, so they’re a good
team to run scrambles against.

“That (the defense) got us going and after we got a little
cushion we shot the ball a little better.”

Indeed, the Owls lit up the scoreboards with 26 points in the
second quarter after opening the game with a 16-9 advantage after
one.

A total of six different Bradford players scored in the stanza,
either around the hoop or at the free throw line.

Tom Morris, Dan Vecellio, Ryan LaBrozzi, Tom Taylor, Randy
Confer and Tyler Grandy each put points in the book, but LaBrozzi
led the way with eight of his team-high 13 points on slashing
drives to the rim.

“We stressed attacking the basket,” Fuhrman pointed out. “In a
lot of games this year we’ve been too quick to settle for
stand-still perimeter shots.

“It puts a lot of pressure on a team’s defense when you take the
ball to the basket – you get to the foul line, force defensive
rotation, get shots closer to the basket and you might get some
lay-ups. A lot of good things can happen for you offensively when
you do that.”

The Beavers warmed up in the third as Jordan LaBue scored nine
of his game-high 15 points in the quarter to spark an 11-3 spurt,
but the Owls still had DuBois doubled up going into the final eight
minutes at 58-29.

Seniors Morris and Vecellio piled it on in the fourth with a
trifecta from Morris and three points from Vecellio made the lead
33 points, 64-31.

Then youngsters Grandy and Pug Fuhrman each scored to make it
68-35 and DuBois wanted a time-out.

But unless first-year head coach Karin Pfingstler could come up
with a way for her team to score 34 points in the final 3 1/2
minutes while holding the Owls scoreless, the time-out was pretty
much useless.

Cory Viola was the 10th Owl to get in on the scoring act with a
bomb from beyond the arc with about a minute to go.

Junior Ben Lanich came up with his typical double-double,
scoring 11 steady points and hauling down 16 rebounds, 12 of which
were of the offensive variety. The 6-5 center also blocked five
shots.

Also in doubles for BHS were Morris with 12 points and six
assists, LaBrozzi complemented his 13 points with five assists and
five steals, and Vecellio finished with 11 points.

“Both of our seniors, Morris and Vecellio, got double digits and
it’s always good when you can win on Senior Night,” Fuhrman
maintained.

“Both of those guys have been very loyal. When they were playing
at Fretz there were a lot of other guys and they’re the two that
are left. They’ve seen it through and it’d be nice for those guys
to put it together here at the end of the season.

“It would be nice for us as a team to put it together for them,
reward them for their effort in hanging in there.”

The win puts Bradford at 8-4 in the D-9 league on the season and
Fuhrman believes it may have clinched the Owls a home playoff game,
likely against Clearfield.

Hovering around the .500 mark for most of the year, Fuhrman
wasn’t sure his Owls would make the playoffs.

“I debated it (going to the playoffs), but I know we’re
competitive against the teams that we’d have to beat, and we’ve
played a good schedule, too. I don’t think anybody around here
plays as tough a non-league schedule as we do, but that’s why we do
it. To prepare us for the playoffs.

“But we still have two games next week,’ Fuhrman added.

The Owls will close their regular season with back-to-back
non-league games, hosting Corry on Tuesday and traveling to Warren
on Wednesday.