By HUNTER O. LYLE
ALLEGANY, NY – Playing in the headlining game of the 50th annual Joe DeCerbo Holiday Showcase, the Olean boy’s basketball team dominated Bradford for their fourth win of the season, claiming a 50-20 victory on the first day of the showcase.
Entering Saturday, the Owls were banged up. Along with the typical tweaks and twinges a team faces through the physicality of the regular season, Bradford was also dealing with sickness, one that swept through the roster and left several big holes to be filled.
“There were a total of nine of us that kind of went through this flu-bug the past few days, including us coaches,” said Bradford head coach Andrew Terwilliger, whose team lost two starters. “I knew that we weren’t going to have the same energy that we normally play with, so we were looking for ways to adapt to that.”
The gaps were felt early, especially in their frontcourt where the Owls’ faced a severe lack of ballhandling. After scoring on their initial touch of the game, with Mykel Rivera winning the tip and taking it directly to the hoop, the Huskies implemented a rigorous full-court-press that all but hobbled Bradford. Immediately coming away with turnovers, including a 10-second and shot-clock violation, Olean quickly began building up a lead.
While Bradford tried to clamp down with an assertive zone defense, nothing seemed to hinder the Huskies, who scored inside and out. Meanwhile, Olean’s defense barricaded the Owls to the perimeter, where they scanned the paint for an entryway. After over four minutes of scoreless basketball, Bradford managed to find their only field goal of the opening quarter, a steal and score from Trey Curcio. They would add one more singular point onto their side of the scoreboard – a split trip to the line from Carter Roulo – but looked up at a 16-3 deficit after the initial eight minutes.
“We wanted to start fast. We just wanted to create our own energy, especially since we’re on the road, it’s a night game so there’s a little less crowd noise,” said Olean head coach Tim Kolasinski. “We just wanted to bring our own energy.”
Olean’s defense didn’t soften over the next eight minutes. Continuing to contain Bradford to the free throw line or above, the Huskies held a strict grip on the game and refused to let go. Although their offense settled into the halfcourt set rather than pushing a consistent run-and-gun tempo, Olean maintained a dominant authority on defense, especially with their full-court-press.
Once again, it would take Bradford over four minutes to search for their first points of the quarter, with Ryan Nelson converting an offensive rebound with less than four minutes before the half. However, once the Owls saw the ball go in, they began to attack. At first, the action went through Danny Marasco, who tallied the next four Bradford points off a steal and transition score and a post maneuver. Then, in the final minutes, glimpses could be seen of Bradford’s reliance, with several Owls making it into the scoring column. Yet, the efforts failed to make any significant change and entering halftime, Bradford looked up at a 14-point disadvantage.
“That was the pace we like to play normally, fast. That was probably those guys trying to exert themselves a little bit and they did and not long after it started to hurt,” said Terwilliger. “Their chests started hurting, the legs started hurting and we started substituting some guys in.”
If it hadn’t been already, the game was decided in the third. Any momentum Bradford had built towards the end of the second quarter was clipped as frequent turnovers reemerged as a hemorrhaging flaw. As they continued to battle the Huskies’ in-your-face defense, Bradford was unable to maintain possession and instead gave up free layups with several empty trips down the floor. Cashing in on points in transition in bunches, Olean ran away with the lead as they outscored Bradford 10-2.
Entering the final quarter, everything was all but decided. Holding a 22-point lead, Olean began substituting their bench in, a move replicated by the Owls as they ran through the motions for the final eight minutes.
Brayden Ruggles led the day with 11 points for the Huskies, followed by Rivera with nine and Connor Hogle with eight. For Bradford, Tyler Simmons and Landon Lohrman both tallied six points.
“It’s always good to walk away on the winning side. Hats off to Bradford, I think they really did play really hard,” said Kolasinski, “but it’s always good to come out of these showcase, tournament environments with a win. Hopefully this will give us some momentum going into tomorrow and going into our overall league season.”
In the second day of the DeCerbo on Sunday, Olean will take on Warren tomorrow at 7:45 p.m., while Bradford faces Allegany-Limestone at 6 p.m.
AT ALLEGANY
Bradford (25)
Simmons 2 1-1 6, L. Lohrman 3 0-2 6, Curcio 1 0-0 2, Marasco 1 0-2 2, Wyant 0 2-2 2, Hayden 1 0-0 2, J. Lohrman 0 2-2 2, Nelson 1 0-0 2. Totals: xx xx-xx xx
Olean (50)
B. Ruggles 4 2-2 11, Rivera 4 0-1 9, Hogle 4 0-0 8, Myers 2 2-2 6, Teachman 3 0-0 6, Mest 2 0-0 5, Guenther 1 0-0 3, Bohdanowycz 1 0-0 2, L. Ruggles 0 0-2 0. Totals: 21 4-7 50
Bradford 3 12 14 25
Olean 16 26 36 50
Three-point goals: BD (1) Simmons, OL (4) Guenther, B. Ruggles, Mest, Rivera; Total fouls: BD 8, OL 14; Fouled out: None.
