PORT ALLEGANY — Wins aren’t going to come easy in the IU9 bubble, and both the Bradford and Port Allegany boys basketball teams learned that on Tuesday night.
The Owls, fresh off back-to-back losses to Cameron County and Elk Catholic, snapped their losing skid with a 47-40 road win over the winless Gators (0-4) in a competitive, back-and-forth matchup.
“Everyone’s very competitive (in this bubble),” Bradford head coach Chuck Bell said. “(It was) definitely a hard-fought game. They have some real nice players over here in Port Allegany they handle the ball and they shot very well tonight, too.”
The Gators finished the night shooting 39% percent from the floor on 15-of-39 shooting, while Bradford was 44% for the night on 19-of-43.
Port came out firing in the first quarter and led by as much as five at 13-8. Bradford battled back and tied the game up at 13 with a basket from Nolan Roulo and a three-pointer that was banked in by Gavin Piscitelli near the end of the period.
But Trey Kleitz, who led Port with 12 points, made a layup as time expired in the quarter to give the Gators a 15-13 advantage.
“First quarter is how we kind of want to play the whole game. If you put together four solid quarters like that, then we win three out of the four games we’ve been in. But obviously we got in foul trouble early,” Port head coach Kyle Babcock said.
The second quarter proved to be one of the turning points during the game as the Owls (3-2) went on to outscore Port, 13-2, to take a 26-17 halftime lead. Cam Austin, who led Bradford in scoring, scored six of his game-high 15 points during the period before having to sit the bench due to foul trouble.
“He plays really well,” Bell said of Austin. “He’s able to get to the paint and elevate over some guys and that helps us a lot.”
It wasn’t until the 2:28 mark in the second quarter that the Gators would finally begin chipping away at their deficit with a bucket from Dominic Guerrero.
“We brought a little bit more pressure defensively,” Bell said. “(We) tried to trap them a couple times in the backcourt and just get them to speed them up a little bit and try to cause some turnovers. That worked in our favor and we turned turnovers into points.”
Port committed 19 total turnovers to Bradford’s 13 and two starters in Kleitz and Noah Archer got into foul trouble early, which also didn’t help. Archer fouled out very late and Kleitz finished the night with four fouls.
“I think they sat pretty much the whole second quarter, Babcock said. “We came out and I told them, I said in this quarter, I want to cut it to within two (points), make them call a timeout and we’re right back into this game.”
The Gators were able to do just that.
With the help of a 9-2 run, Port was able to cut Bradford’s lead down to 28-26. That lead was extended back to five points after a corner trey from Piscitelli, but Drew Evens, who finished with 10 points, including three treys, answered back with a three-pointer of his own which forced a Bradford timeout with 2:55 left in the third.
After a basket from Austin and another three-pointer from Piscitelli in the same spot as before, Evens answered back with another trey to put the score at 36-32 in favor of the Owls heading into the fourth quarter.
Piscitelli made three treys during the game, which was his season debut. He finished the night with 11 points and was one of three Owls in double figures. The other being Austin and Roulo, who also recorded 11 points along with five rebounds.
Tuesday was also Nate Gleason’s return to action for Bradford as well.
“It was nice to have Gavin Piscitelli back,” Bell said. “He steps in and just kind of calms things down sometimes and he came in and brought us 11 points tonight, we needed that…Nate brings some length to us. We’ve been having trouble inside a little bit and he brings some height and helps us out, especially defensively.”
Piscitelli and Gleason’s return to the floor also helped the team when it came to handling the ball in tight situations, which also helped the Owls earn a victory down the stretch.
After playing a 2-3 zone during Monday’s home loss to Cameron County, the Owls started Tuesday’s game in man defense and mixed in the 2-3 zone to keep Port adjusting and thinking, according to Bell.
Bradford’s ball handling, along with its defense, were key during the fourth quarter with the Owls able to again hold Port to a scoring drought, with the Gators not scoring until 3:44 left in the game with a steal and fastbreak basket from Kleitz. Dalton Dixon tallied a team-high four steals for Bradford.
“We missed a lot of front ends on some one-and-ones, that kind of hurt and just things don’t seem to fall in place when we need them to,” Babcock said. “It’s kind of been that way all season so far.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for either team, with the Gators hosting Johnsonburg on Friday night. Babcock is looking for the team to play a solid four full quarters and keep battling.
“There hasn’t been a game yet where I felt like we were completely out of it,” Babcock said. “The kids work hard and that’s all we ask from them and they play from start to finish. Hopefully one of these games will go our way.”
On the other side, Bradford will host St. Marys on Friday, a team under new head coach Bill Shuey that Bell expects to run some zone and use their length to their advantage, especially on defense. The coach is looking for his team to be fundamentally sound and bring energy.
“We had two really tough games and we talked about if you’re made out of the right material, you can bounce back from that and we had to get this one tonight,” Bell said. “(I’m) very proud of the guys how they came together and got it.”
AT PORT ALLEGANY
Bradford (47)
Cam Austin 7 1-1 15, Gavin Piscitelli 3 2-4 11, Nolan Roulo 5 1-3 11, Dixon 2 1-2 6, Franz 0 2-2 2, A. Gleason 1 0-1 2. Totals: 18 7-13 47
Port Allegany (40)
Trey Kleitz 5 1-2 12, Drew Evens 3 1-4 10, C. Moses 2 1-3 5, Guilds 2 0-0 4, Sprankle 1 0-0 3, B. Moses 1 0-0 2, Guerrero 1 0-0 2, Archer 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 3-9 40
Bradford 13 26 36 47
Port Allegany 15 17 32 40
Three-point goals: Bradford 4 (Piscitelli 3, Dixon 1), PA 5 (Evens 3, Kleitz 1, Sprankle 1); Total fouls: Bradford 13, PA 18; fouled out: A. Gleason (Bradford), C. Moses (PA), Archer (PA).
JV: Bradford won 56-29
