On the football field, the Brookville Raiders were one of District 9’s toughest teams in 2019 en route to an 8-3 record. And with plenty of those same athletes trading their football helmets for basketball shorts, they proved on Friday night that most of that grit easily carries over onto the hardwood.

Controlling the game from start to finish, the Raiders used their size and hot shooting to cruise to a 63-41 victory over the host Bradford Owls in a D9 League matchup.

The Owls (7-4, 1-1), which trailed 9-2 after a tough first few minutes, were never really in the game and struggled to get into any rhythm on either side of the ball.

Bradford head coach Brian Hobbs admitted a pregame switch to zone defense — as well as Brookville’s talent level — contributed to the lackluster start.

“They are really good at attacking the basket, they do a really good job and they’re strong,” he noted of the Raiders. “I think their weaker part of their team is their perimeter shooting. They have two kids (inside) that are solid. I just thought to try to limit that dribble penetration we should go zone and protect the paint. But at the same time I think that put our team in a different tempo… we weren’t as aggressive.”

Indeed, while the Raiders (7-5, 3-1) finished a potent 6-for-14 from 3-point range, they were much more dangerous in the post.

Bradford was outrebounded 30-22 in the game, but nine of those Brookville boards came on the offensive end.

Aaron Park led the Raiders in the paint with 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Owls struggled to answer his physicality on either end of the court.

“He’s a good player. He’s the (head coaches) son and he plays smart,” Hobbs said. “He doesn’t have to score, he’ll distribute the ball and do everything you want. Just a good, solid basketball player and on top of it, he’s a big body. He does a nice job out there.”

That strong play in the post also forced Bradford into plenty of bad passes. The Owls committed just 13 turnovers in the game, but Hobbs noted that at least half of them resulted in transition points the other way.

“Even though it wasn’t terrible, it seemed worse because they scored off them,” he noted.

Robert Keth had a team-high 14 for Brookville, including two 3-pointers, and Jace Minor added 13 of his own.

After the Owls cut Brookville’s lead to 15-12 early in the second quarter, the Raiders went on a 32-15 run over the next 12 minutes. In the third quarter, Park had eight points in the paint and Brookville hit three 3-pointers to surge ahead to a 47-27 lead and put the game out of reach.

“We’ve kind of been like that in practice to be honest with you,” Hobbs admitted. “We’ve needed some wake-up calls to really get going.”

Tyler Gigliotti again led the Owls in scoring with 14 points, but Bradford junior Gavin Piscitelli also had a strong night for Bradford. He knocked down a game-high four 3-pointers and paced the team on what was an otherwise off shooting night (14-for-39 from the field).

“We’re happy for him; he’s doing some good things for us,” Hobbs said. “He did some good things for us the other night (against Kane) and finally got comfortable. He was sick early on in the year and that kind of set him back a little bit.

“He’s comfortable now and we’re happy that he’s shooting like he is. We’ll continue to use him and he’s just got to get into the flow with the other guys.”

After nine of its first ten games of the year were non-league contests, Bradford is currently in the midst of a three-game D9 League stretch that includes road trips to DuBois and Punxsutawney next week.

Hobbs said the key in those games will be better preparation as well as his guys being eager to match their opponent’s toughness.

“We need to come with the energy level in practice so that there’s no switching gears,” he said. “But, we also need to be tougher. I think this was a toughness game and we struggled at the beginning of the year when we played Oil City. (Friday) was a toughness game that we could win and we didn’t match energy, we didn’t match toughness and that was the difference again.”

FRESHMAN: Brookville topped Bradford 37-26 in the ninth-grade game. Lucas Johnson led the Owls with 10 and Troy Adkins chipped in eight. In the JV game, Bradford edged the Raiders, 55-46. Gavin Piscitelli had a game-high 21 for the Owls.

AT BRADFORD

Brookville (63)

Robert Keth 5 2-2 14, Aaron Park 6 1-2 13, Jace Minor 6 0-0 13, Baughman 1 1-4 , Greer 1 0-0 2, Lauer 2 0-0 6, Ruhlman 0 2-2 2, Krug 4 1-3 9. Totals: 25 7-13 63

Bradford (41)

Tyler Gigliotti 4 4-5 14, Gavin Piscitelli 4 0-0 12, Austin 3 1-2 8, Knowlton 2 0-0 4, Schmidt 1 1-2 3. Totals: 14 6-9 41

Brookville 13 24 47 63

Bradford 4 15 27 41

Three-point goals: Brookville 6 (Keth 2, Ruhlman 2, Boughman, Minor), Bradford 7 Piscitelli 4, Gigliotti 2, Austin 1); Total fouls: Bradford 15, Brookville 10; fouled out: none

JV: Bradford won 55-46