By HUNTER O. LYLE
ALLEGANY, NY – Rebounding from a three-game losing streak, the Bradford boy’s basketball team left the annual Joe DeCerbo Holiday Showcase with a win, beating out Allegany-Limestone 60-45 with a second-half surge.
Each coming off respective losses, both teams were still in need of a cohesive rhythm out. While the Gators stumbled over Bradford’s immediate full-court-press, the Owls struggled with their own turnovers, with sloppy passes and miscommunications piling up in the form of three give-aways in the first two minutes of play. Just as they were finding their footing, however, A-L’s offense accelerated.
Catching fire was Nolan O’Brien, who splashed home his first 3-pointer of the day early to put the Gators ahead 5-2. Then, as they began grinding away at Bradford’s press and zone defense, A-L consistently found O’Brien in the corners. Making the most of his open opportunities, O’Brien connected on four more triples, leading the Gators to a 16-8 lead after the first quarter of play.
“That was the best game (O’Brien)’s had and it wasn’t the threes. I think he played both sides of the floor pretty well tonight,” said Allegany-Limestone head coach Glenn Anderson. “He rebounded really well and he had to because Bradford’s pretty big and we’re not. I thought it was good to see from him.”
However, just as quickly as A-L’s offense arrived, it vanished. After a few quick adjustments from the Owls’ defense, the Gators went cold. Despite continuing to find open looks with crisp ball movement, the jumpers refused to fall. Even when coming away with steals or offensive rebounds, chances with point blank looks at the rim, A-L couldn’t snap the dry spell, culminating in nearly five full minutes of scoreless basketball.
“We flipped our defense. We weren’t covering the corners quick enough so I flipped it so we could have some back coverage and still stay in that pressure defense,” said Bradford head coach Andrew Terwilliger. “Under normal conditions we could probably get there quickly enough, but with us struggling (with illness) we were just a couple steps behind.”
Meanwhile, the Owls began chipping away. After ironing out their turnover trouble, Bradford started sizing up their advantage in the middle. Coming away with six unanswered points, including a triple from Marcus Terwilliger in his first game back from injury, Bradford managed to knot the game at 16 with three and a half minutes remaining.
In the final moments of the first half, A-L sprang back to life and both teams traded blows back-and-forth. Ultimately, the Owls clung to a slim 23-22 margin heading into halftime.
“I think making a bunch of threes is a double-edged sword. You see them go in and then all of a sudden we think we can live on that,” said Anderson. “The emphasis all day was to get the ball into the middle and I think that in the second quarter we shot too many threes.”
The flurry of offense carried over into the third quarter. Both returning to the hardwood with an emphasis on pushing the pace, the Owls and Gators swapped scores, almost perfectly mirroring each other. When Tyler Simmons knocked down a triple for Bradford, Jax Amore retaliated on the next trip down the floor. After Marcus Terwilliger cruised through the lane for a layup, Cooper Wilczewski spun off the block for a smooth finish at the rim.
Bradford’s defense would buck the trend however. Holding a two-point lead with five minutes remaining, a steal in the halfcourt interrupted the tick-for-tack flow. The Owls turned that turnover into two points from Troisi before repeating the feat with a steal and two made free throws from Simmons. All of a sudden, A-L was cold and Bradford had the momentum, which they turned into an 11-0 run.
Despite ending the three and half minute drought with a handful of scores in the final minute, the Gators were now under the entirety of the pressure, facing a seven-point deficit with one quarter to go.
The Gators ultimately did cut off the bleeding, holding Bradford scoreless for the initial few minutes of the fourth, but their offense was equally stumped. Sporadic struggles against the full-court-press continued to break up a rhythm, while missed shots and empty possessions added to the deflation as A-L went cold for another three and a half minutes.
In that same window, the Owls began to pull away for good. Continuing to push the pace, Bradford raced up the court to score, then switched into their aggressive pressure defense before the Gators had time to strategize. A split trip at the line from Simmons pushed their lead to 10 before the Owls finished out the game with solid work from the free throw line. Despite A-L’s steady production down the stretch, the distance proved too much to close, suffering the Gators’ sixth loss of the season.
Simmons led Bradford with 21 points while Terwilliger ended with 18. Troisi was the third Owl to end in double-digit scoring, finishing with 10 alongside Roulo’s six. For A-L, O’Brien led all scorers with 23, followed by Callen with 10 and Owen with eight.
“We’re just hoping to grow day-by-day now. I think everyone involved knows this is a two or three year project,” said Anderson, whose team is nearly half all underclassmen. “I think we’re starting to find some guys, like Daeton Owen (eight points) had a really good game and he hasn’t had a ton of minutes at this point. It’s finding situations like that where guys step in and just finding some consistency across the board.”
AT ALLEGANY
Bradford (60)
Simmons 6 8-12 21, Terwilliger 7 2-2 18, Troisi 5 0-1 10, Roulo 3 0-0 6, Curcio 1 1-2 3, Blatchley 0 2-2 21. Totals: 22 13-19 60
Allegany-Limestone (45)
O’Brien 6 5-6 23, Callen 3 2-5 10, Owen 3 2-2 8, Wilczesky 2 0-2 4. Totals: 14 9-15 45
Bradford 8 23 41 60
Allegany-Limestone 16 22 34 45
Three-point goals: BD (3) Terwilliger 2, Simmons, A-L (8) O’Brien 6, Callen 2; Total fouls: BD 16, A-L 18; Fouled out: Roulo (BD).
