At this point in the basketball season, the mark of a good team is one that can battle through adversity and come up with different ways to win.
That couldn’t be any truer for the Bradford Owls, who beat Brockway 61-42 on Friday night despite again being without one of their key contributors.
The game got off to a back-and-forth start, with the two teams tied at seven mid-way through the first quarter. The Owls began to get hot from beyond the arc, however, and hit four 3-pointers en route to outscoring the Rovers 23-10 in the final 12 minutes of that first half.
In the second half, despite Brockway’s offense showing some explosiveness, Bradford continued to dictate the game and was able to put the game away in the fourth with some more hot shooting of their own. The Owls shot 53 percent (21-for-40) on the night, including 7-for-16 from the three-point line.
After point guard Tyler Gigliotti missed a game last week with an injury, the Owls were without forward Danny Manion on Friday. Manion is a big presence defensively in the paint, and although Brockway isn’t the biggest team, Bradford head coach Brian Hobbs admitted that he was concerned before the game with how his team would fare inside.
After the game, he couldn’t stop talking about guys who stepped up in Manion’s absence.
“Gigliotti is battling through his injury and he had 18 tonight. But guys are just stepping up and we are getting some pretty balanced scoring,” Hobbs said. “Deondre only had 10 points, but he had 11 rebounds. When you think about those 11 rebounds, that’s 11 possessions right there.
“Adam Boyer came out tonight and did what we needed him to do being a little bit short-handed,” Hobbs added. “I think he’s going to continue with that too. He’s given us good minutes in the past and I’m glad he played as well as he did tonight.”
The Owls outrebounded Brockway 35-20 for the game, including seven on the offensive glass.
Steve Knowlton got the nod for Manion in the starting five, and he certainly rewarded his head coach for that decision. Knowlton had 17 points, including 10 in the second half to help stop any chance at a Brockway rally attempt.
“We gave Steven the nod and he came up big,” Hobbs said. “He’s an energy guy for our team and when he’s feeling good we have a lot of confidence in him. I’m very happy for him to step up and play the way he did tonight.”
Brockway (9-8) came into Friday’s game riding a four-game winning streak. The Rovers were averaging just over 62 points per game during that streak, but couldn’t get into any consistent rhythm on offense. Carter Adams, who is one of the better three-point shooters in District 9, was limited to just one three and 13 points against Bradford. As a team, the Rovers shot an abysmal 17 percent (4-for-24) from three-point land.
As for the Owls (9-8), Hobbs knows that his team is certainly capable of rattling off a series of wins as the season winds down. Bradford won five-straight games in early-January, but have faced some tough blows since, including a loss in double overtime as well as a defeat to Otto-Eldred at the buzzer. With just four games left in the season, beginning on Tuesday night against DuBois, Hobbs is hoping his team can regain some of that momentum and ride it into the playoffs.
“When we can get healthy and have everyone back it makes a huge difference,” Hobbs said. “I saw some of that chemistry come back tonight that we might’ve lost a little bit missing guys but now is the time you want to be playing well. We want to finish strong and push into playoffs hopefully.”
AT BRADFORD
Brockway (42)
Carter Adams 6 0-0 13, John Wood 5 0-0 13, Zane Puhala 5 1-2 11, Vokes 1 1-3 3, Freemer 1 0-0 2, Lecates 0 0-2 0. Totals: 18 2-7 42
Bradford (61)
Tyler Gigliotti 6 5-5 18, Steve Knowlton 6 1-2 17, Terwilliger 4 1-2 10, Boyer 3 0-0 7, Kuzmeskas 1 2-2 4, Pattison 1 1-2 3, P. Manion 0 2-2 2. Totals: 21 12-15 61
Brockway 9 17 29 42
Bradford 16 30 43 61
Three-point goals: Bradford 6 (Knowlton 4, Terwilliger 1, Gigliotti 1), Brockway 4 (Wood 3, Adams 1); Total fouls: Brockway 13, Bradford 11; fouled out: none
JV: Bradford won 60-36
