COVINGTON – The Bradford Railroaders overcame an 11-0 first-quarter deficit to easily defeat the Houston Wildcats 65-41 in the sixth annual Buccaneer Holiday Classic.
“They came out and played incredibly hard,” said Bradford co-head coach Alex Swabb. “We weren’t valuing the basketball, we weren’t taking care of things the way we needed to take care of things. “They came out and set the pace, the tone.”
“We were playing their tone to start that game but we were able to get a nice break – broke the lid on the basket and once that happened we settled in, relaxed, and were able to play our game,” Swabb added.
Houston took an early 11-0 first-period lead before the Railroaders battled back to close out the opening period on a 16-2 run to lead 16-13 with one quarter in the book.
Bradford extended its scoring run to 30-5 to push its lead to 40-16 at the halfway point in period No. 2 with Own Canan and Hudson Hill posting eight points each including Hill’s second and third 3-pointers of the game. The Railroaders took the second quarter 21-7 sending the teams to the break with Bradford holding a comfortable 37-20 advantage.
The Railroaders nudged out the Wildcats 13-10 in the third with Owen Canan and Landon Wills each scoring five Bradford points to give the Roaders a 50-30 lead with a quarter to play.
Bradford outscored the Wildcats 15-11 in the final period to advance to the championship round of the BUCCS tournament with a 65-41 win.
“Defense is a big thing for us,” Coach Swabb stated. “When we’re able to apply pressure it is definitely one of our strengths – defensive pressure especially is something we build on.”
Owen Canan led Bradford and all scorers with 21 points.
BOXSCORE:
BRADFORD – O. Canan 21, H. Hill 19, L. Wills 18, D. Branson 7 – TOTALS 18 5-8 8 65
HOUSTON – G. Krieger 12, S. Bowman 10, J. Leist 8, L. Crim 7, R. Vondenhuevel 2, A. Pollock 2 – TOTALS 12 8-13 3 41
3-POINTERS
Bradford 8 (H. Hill 5, D. Branson 1, O. Canan 1, L. Wills 1)
Houston 3 (E. Krieger 2, S. Bowman 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
16-21-13-15 65 Bradford
13-07-10-11 41 Houston
