After Bradford’s lackluster victory over Corry on Feb. 20, coach
Dave Fuhrman said he hoped that his Owls understood that they must
win in one week or their season would be over.
Well, that District 9 Class AAA semifinal against Clearfield has
come and gone and the Owls aren’t done yet after a 58-38 win
bounced the Bisons from the postseason Tuesday night.
Bradford’s pedestrian showing in its regular season finale drew
some criticism from its coach as Fuhrman questioned his team’s
effort, but the winning coach couldn’t say enough about the Owls’
defense in the semifinal showing.
“We saved our best game for the playoffs, there’s no doubt about
that. The guys played good on-the-ball defense and very seldom got
beat on drives to the basket. The couple of times we did (get
beat), we did rotate and helped. Our defensive rotation was the
best we’ve shown all year in our man-to-man defense.
“They shot 11-for-43, 26 percent, and that’s because we guarded
and challenged shots.
“It was our best defensive effort of the season. The guys played
tremendous defense and the key to our defense was Tom Taylor.”
Taylor, a junior guard, hustles at the top of the Owls’ press
and zone defenses. No. 10 picked up several steals and contributed
six points in the win.
“He pressured their point guard (John Lhota) up the floor,”
Fuhrman explained. “We wanted to make their point guard work to get
it up the floor and Taylor did that to a T. He zig-zagged him up
the court and kept him out of the lane.
“He played great and he was the focal point of our defense,”
Fuhrman continued. “He was the catalyst and the rest of our team
fed off of him. He disrupted that team’s offense and made some nice
picks.
“I haven’t seen a point guard play defense like that since Cory
Hayden (floor general of Bradford’s 1994-95 Dream Team).”
The Owls have been trying to put together a complete game all
season and with Tommy Morris pouring in 19 points and Lanich
putting up a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds, Fuhrman
felt his boys might finally have done so.
“It finally did all come together. It was one of our best games
of the year, maybe our best game in all phases.
“We had good shot selection and didn’t force anything. We
committed 10 turnovers, which isn’t bad. We outrebounded them 38-21
and we put pressure on their defense taking the ball to the basket.
Dan Vecellio kept a lot of balls alive and we came up with a lot of
loose balls. I think the game went exactly how we would’ve scripted
it.”
Morris, who complemented his game-high 19 with four assists and
three steals, took pen in hand to draw up a 22-9 margin for the
hosts after one.
The senior guard’s shooting hand was still hot after scoring 22
on six threes last week and he canned three more long bombs by the
4:19 point of the first.
Lanich was active inside and shot 4-for-6 from the charity
stripe, Drew Kelly sank two consecutive jumpers, Ryan LaBrozzi got
on the board and Taylor buried his trademark pull-up in the paint
in a crucial fast start for BHS.
“We had them chasing us and that was key,” Fuhrman maintained.
“I said coming in that how we played offensively against their
1-1-3 zone would be key. They like to spread the floor and get you
into those defensive struggles, but we did a good job of attacking
their zone defense.”
Clearfield canned a few three-pointers in the second quarter to
keep it reasonable at 31-19 after the first half.
But Lanich opened the third quarter with seven straight points
and when Morris scored on a cut to the rack to make it 40-20, the
Bisons sent someone out to warm up the bus.
“The guys did a nice job in the first four minutes of the
third,” Fuhrman noted. “We executed and scored and didn’t give them
any chance to cut into that 12-point (halftime) lead.”
Bradford basked in its largest lead at 58-33 when Tyler Grandy
hit a free throw with 48 ticks to go and Owl fans bid the Bisons
farewell.
“It was a great atmosphere and it was a great night for our
school as both the boys and girls won. The crowd was into it and
the kids responded to the crowd.
“We defended our home court tonight. I’m very proud of the kids
– they played with a lot of focus and intensity.”
The Owls, now 12-11, will take on St. Marys for the District 9
Class AAA championship at Clarion University’s Tippin Gymnasium on
Saturday at a time to be determined.
The last time the two teams faced off, Dutchman Louie Pisani
torched BHS for 34 points.
Bradford will be hoping for a bit of Ohio State syndrome to
plague the Dutch, who have not played a game since Feb. 9.
“I think we’re in more of a routine right now, having at least
played a game each week,” Fuhrman reasoned. “So hopefully their
long lay-off will work out in our favor, but you never know.
“We’re going to have to guard the arc against them. If we played
the kind of defense we did tonight, we’ll have a great chance.”
