By HUNTER O. LYLE
BRADFORD, PA – Despite having several chances in the final seconds, the Bradford girls’ basketball team failed to seize the moment to complete their comeback, falling to Brookville 38-35.
Fresh off a win-streak-ending loss to Warren, the Lady Owls looked to right their ship against the Lady Raiders. However, their offense failed to materialize early. In the opening minutes, Bradford would be plagued by turnovers, giving the ball away five times on their first six possessions. When able to hold onto the ball, Brookville forced the Lady Owls to the perimeter and, unable to both drive or feed their star forward Hayley Keane, they struggled to put points on the board.
“We just had nerves from the beginning. We were just trying to settle down,” said Bradford head coach Jason Blatchley. “It was a league game against a good Brookville team and I think we just got so nervous in the beginning.”
Meanwhile, the Lady Raiders earned points inside. Head down drives resulted in easy layups or trips to the free throw line, allowing Brookville to build a 10-2 lead after the initial eight minutes.
Coming into the second quarter, Bradford finally opened up their offense. Emphasizing off-ball screens and a 4-1 spread, the Lady Owls found ways inside which resulted in a three-point-play from Keane and an inbound score from Mackenzie Taylor. As they continued to exploit the gaps in Brookville’s paint defense, Bradford managed to cut the lead to three with just under four minutes remaining.
However, turnover trouble reappeared and in the closing minutes, Brookville stretched their lead to five before the half.
After the intermission, Bradford once again came out guns a’blazing. Giving the keys to their star, Bradford watched as Keane forced her way to the rim. Scoring either by drives to the hoop or post maneuvers, she poured in eight unanswered points to give the Lady Owls their first lead of the night. With six minutes remaining in the period, Bradford found themselves with a three-point margin.
Although they had been held scoreless for over four minutes, Brookville wouldn’t implode. Rather, after seeing the ball go in once, they immediately found their rhythm. Responding to Bradford’s run, the Lady Raiders scored eight unanswered points of their own. After taking the lead, they finished the quarter on a 12-2 run that put Brookville up 31-24 with one quarter left.
“It was just back and forth. We had the momentum and then they brought it back,” said Blatchley. “It just shows that our girls fight to the end.”
With the game on the line, Bradford concentrated their defense to the interior. Allowing the Lady Raiders to shoot from beyond the arch resulted in long rebounds and Lady Owl fastbreaks. Scoring by committee, Bradford trimmed the lead to six before Alyssa Johnson knocked down a 3-pointer to bring them to within three. A steal, offensive rebound and score from Mallory Craig cut the gap to just one with 1:30 left on the clock.
Mackenzie Taylor steals the ball and takes it the full length of the court for two points during Bradford’s loss to the Lady Raiders. | Photo by Hunter O. Lyle
From there, Brookville meticulously slowed the game down, taking large swaths of time off the clock as they paced around the perimeter. Unable to score, a loose rebound fell into Bradford’s possession and with just 22 seconds left, they called a timeout to regather themselves.
Inbounding the ball, Bradford spent 11 seconds trying to find Keane, who was the recipient of Brookville double teams. As they began to panic, a Lady Owl ball handler lost control and after a fight for the ball, the Lady Raiders earned possession via jump ball. Bradford would get one final chance from a Johnson steal off Brookville’s inbounding pass, but again, lost control and suffered another turnover.
At this point, the Lady Owls were forced to intentionally foul. With 4.3 seconds left, Brookville knocked down both shots at the charity stripe and as Bradford struggled to inbound the ball, they suffered their sixth loss of the season.
Per usual, Keane led the way in the scoring column with 19 points. Taylor ended with eight and both Johnson and Alexis Kicior scored three points.
“We just need to move forward. We have three games next week, three tough road games at Cameron County, at Coudersport and at DuBois,” said Blatchely. “Hopefully we get back on track. If we play four quarters of basketball, we’ll be good.”
AT BRADFORD
Brookville (38)
Whitling 3 8-11 14, Plyler 2 3-4 7, Guth 2 2-2 6, Northey 3 0-0 6, Wilson 1 1-2 3, Yoder 1 0-0 2. Totals: 12 14-19 38
Bradford (35)
Keane 9 1-5 19, Taylor 3 2-2 8, Kicior 1 1-1 3, Johnson 1 0-0 3. Totals: 14 4-12 33
Brookville 10 19 31 38
Bradford 2 14 24 35
Three-point goals: BK (0), BR (1) Johnson; Total fouls: BK 9, BR 12; fouled out: None.
