PIQUA – It was a battle of two 8-14 teams between Bradford and Southeastern in the 2nd round of the OHSAA Boys Basketball DVII Tournament held at Piqua High School. The Railroaders got off to slow start but grabbed a halftime lead 25-24, expanded the lead to eight in the second half then fought off a Southeastern rally late to pick up a 52-49 win.
Both teams played Newton in the regular season, and lost by two, so on paper it appeared it would be an even match-up.
In the opening frame the lead see-sawed back and forth four times and then tied at 7-7 before the Trojans went on a nine-point run to take a 16-7 lead. Zage Harleman only scored two points on fielder inside to break the run and ending the quarter trailing 16-9.
Senior Owen Canan would come alive in the 2nd quarter hitting a deep triple, then followed up with a drive and scoop for a deuce but still down 20-14.
Sophomore Rallie Wirrig who had 9 rebounds and a blocked shot in the first half, he was working hard in the paint and toed the free throws line twice for three points and a lay-up that drew the Roaders to 22-19.
It was Canan again draining from long range to tie the game at 22 with under a minute to go.
Southeastern added another bucket on an offensive rebound for what looked like it was going to be a 24-22 halftime lead.
The ball was tossed in quickly to Canan who weaved through two defenders to halfcourt and he launched a horn beater bringing the crowd to their feet to give Bradford a 25-24 advantage and critical momentum at the break.
“After that first quarter where we started a little flat, they (Southeastern) had all the energy, had all the momentum. We couldn’t get the ball to fall, didn’t move our feet too well on defense. But we adjusted strategy shifted over to zone and it dramatically helped us out,” Bradford coach Alex Swabb said.
“Offensively we just grinded and chipped away to get us right back in the mix and then the half-court shot gave us momentum at the half,” Bradford coach Alex Swabb added.
Canan pick-up where he left off by coming out and knocking down a jumper to start the third quarter followed by a one-handed runner to give the Roaders a 29-26 lead at six minutes.
Besides Canan and Wirrig scoring, Bradford got back-to-back contributions on a triple from Greg Chowning and a layup from Avery Felver for a 34-26 lead, prompting a Southeastern timeout.
The Trojans responded out of the timeout with two straight buckets … but Chowning would register an old-fashion three-point play to push the lead back out to 37-30 with 1:32 to go in 3rd period.
Southeastern wouldn’t go away adding a three-pointer but two free throws from Canan and Chowning’s second trey of the quarter gave the Railroaders a 42-35 lead heading into the final stanza.
Bradford was able to maintain the seven point lead 48-41 on 5 points from Rallie Wirrig who had 13 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in the game.
With just over 4:50 to go the pace of the game got slower as Bradford tried to take time off the clock but a few turnovers that led to scores by Southeastern and Bradford scoreless over the next four minutes made the score 48-44.
Needing a bucket badly the railroaders finally got one … but it wasn’t from Canan, Wirrig or Chowning it came from Felver who had an open look from the short corner, and he confidently stroked it home with 50 seconds to play to go up 50-44.
Theatrics were still on display as the Trojans converted an and one inside as they took advantage of their size in the second half and cut the margin to 50-47.
Southeastern was then forced to foul Owen Canan who delivered the knock-out dropping both tosses to render the last bucket made at the horn by the Trojans irrelevant.
Bradford secured a 52-49 DVII tournament win and now moves on to the District Semi-Final game.
After the game Coach Swabb talked about how they lean on Owen Canan and Rallie Wirrig … but also noted contributions from others that were big in the game.
“We rely on those guys alot, especially on the offensive end. Zage Harleman doesn’t nearly show as much in the stats, points wise, but he does a lot in terms of our strategy, how we set up plays and we got a good contribution from Avery Felver and Greg Chowning,” Swabb explained.
“You don’t do it without them and it’s unfortunate, because those things get overlooked when you look at SCORE books, you go this kid scored four, this kid scored six, but there’s no pictures on a score book. And there’s scenarios where those four points might have been all down the stretch in the fourth quarter, where nobody could put a ball in the hoop, and this kid’s making great plays on both sides of ball and he provides momentum. You drastically need those guys that do all the dirty work with none of the credit they deserve. You don’t win those games without them,” Swabb concluded.
And that was evident tonight against Southeastern as Felver, Harleman, Chowning all played key roles and made big plays at the right time.
They will play 23-0 Russia who is the #1 DVII team in the state at Piqua High School on Wednesday February 22nd at 7pm.
Score by Quarters
Bradford ………09 … 16 … 17 … 10 – 52
Southeastern .16 … 08 … 11 … 14 – 49
Team Scoring:
Bradford: G. Chowning 3-1-1/1 – 12, O. Canan 3-4-4/4 – 21, Z. Harleman 1-0-0/2 – 2,
A. Felver 0-2-0/0 – 4, R. Wirrig 0-3-7/13 – 13, Totals 6-11-12/16 – 52
Southeastern: Harrington 0-2-1/2 – 5, McNeil 1-7-3/4 – 20, Coffey 1-4-0/0 – 11
Kleig 0-2-0/0 – 4, Workman 1-1-2/2 – 9, Totals 3-16-8/10 – 4
