The Bradford Owls demonstrated their seniority and eventually
their superiority with a 76-53 District 9 League win over
Punxsutawney in boys’ basketball action on Friday.
The top six players for Bradford are seniors and all played well
on Senior Night. Behind Matthew White scoring a career-high 20
points, twin brother Michael White handed out eight assists, Pug
Fuhrman scored 16 points and had six assists, Jimmy Grove drilled
five three-pointers for 15 points, Ryan Mackey contributed 11
points, and Evan Kline registered six points and was a force
defensively.
“It was great to see Matt (White) have an offensive game like
that on Senior Night,” said Dave Fuhrman, Bradford head coach.
“Mike (White) was right on his average for assists, and all the
seniors played great in front of a good crowd tonight.”
There was a case of mistaken identity at the outset as the
cellar-dwelling Chucks (4-17, 0-12) opened a 7-1 lead on the
first-place Owls (19-2, 11-0) with 6:06 left in the first quarter.
At that juncture, the Bradford head mentor had seen enough and
called a quick timeout.
“I told our guys Punxsy was here to play despite being winless
in the league,” coach Fuhrman recalled. “That team does have some
talent. Maybe our guys weren’t sure what their psyche was coming up
here, and we found out very quickly they were here to play.”
After the stoppage, the BAHS gym seemed be a good site for an
umbrella as it began to rain three-pointers.
Fuhrman drilled a step-back trifecta and then another with his
back foot in the Willard Avenue parking lot to tie the contest at
7-all.
Following another deep three by Fuhrman, Grove swished a bomb
from the left corner and Matthew White drained two more, but Punxsy
also converted a pair of threes and the game was tied at 21 with a
minute remaining in the opening stanza.
Then, with just over seven seconds left in the period, Matthew
White stole the ball in his defensive end and launched an
off-balanced three-pointer from the left wing at the buzzer to give
the Owls a 24-21 margin after one.
In the second quarter, Bradford finally maintained a working
margin at 39-29 on a layup by Fuhrman, a triple by Grove and a
reverse layin from Mackey.
Then with the clock in its waning seconds, Matthew White struck
again with a driving layup for a 43-32 Bradford advantage at the
intermission.
After the break, any thoughts of an upset by the have-nots over
the haves were quickly dispelled by a 10-0 Bradford run to commence
the third quarter.
As they had accomplished in the first period, the Owls racked up
24 more points in the third stanza to open a comfortable 67-44
bulge.
“The question coming into this season was our ability to score,”
coach Fuhrman admitted. “Our team has improved offensively as the
season has gone along. Everybody we put out there can have nights
where they can put some points up on the board and that will help
us down the road.”
Bradford then enjoyed its largest margin at 74-48 with 3:42
remaining on Grove’s fifth three-pointer of the evening.
“People look at that body and don’t think he (Grove) can shoot
from that range,” Fuhrman noted.
After Grove’s final dagger, coach Fuhrman cleared his bench and
began looking to the home season finale versus DuBois on Tuesday
(7:30 p.m.).
“We have a 15-game winning streak going and we would like to
finish undefeated in the league,” coach Fuhrman stated. “Not too
many teams end up with a 12-0 record in the league. It’s tough with
the travel and the good coaches in the league, and it would be a
real credit to these kids if they could accomplish that.”
