BRADFORD – The Lady Railroaders dropped a 50-39 non-conference game to the Bethel Lady Bees on the Roaders home court in Tuesday night action.
“Instead of hanging our heads after losses we take them and we learn from them, what we can fix the next time,” said Bradford coach, Josh Siedling,
Bethel took the opening quarter 12-7 and moved out to a 22-15 lead at the halftime break with the Lady Bees taking the second period 10-8. Lady Roaders sophomore Ryleigh Dotson paced Bradford with six points coming on two 3-pointers.
The teams played to a 14-14 third quarter with the teams combining for a total of six triples in the period including two each from Bradford freshman, Lilly Canan and Dotson sending the game to the final quarter of play with the visiting Lady Bees holding a 36-29 advantage.
“We didn’t get that rolling early, it took us a little bit but the past couple games they proved they can go out and shoot,” said Bradford coach, Josh Siedling. “Lilly had a game against Lehman, she hit three in the first half and Rileigh has improved a lot, especially last year and then coming into this year – her confidence is rolling.”
Period No. four went to Bethel by a 14-10 score giving the Lady Bees an 11-point win.
“I am extremely proud of all the girls,” said Coach Siedling. “They fought hard even through adversity whatever it may be, if shots are not falling early we still battle and we tried to get back into it. We ran out of steam a little towards the end but nothing that we should be ashamed of.”
Bradford’s season leading scorer, Vivian Harleman was not in uniform due to an earlier injury.
“It’s tough losing her,” Siedling noted. “She’s a great shooter, been the leading scorer on the team. So next man-up mentality on who is going to step up and provide some shots. They are all capable of it and they see that five or six of them can step in. I give everybody the green light – if you’re open that is the shot we want. We work hard at shooting in practice so I trust every one of them to shoot it.”
Lilly Canan led Bradford and all scorers with a game-high 15 points, all coming from beyond the arc while Dotson accounted for 12 Lady Roaders points, coming by way of four triples.
The game had a total of 16 3-pointers, nine from Bradford and seven by the Lady Bees.
BOXSCORE:
BETHEL – Z. Drummond 14, I Halleg 12, M. Halfhill 9, A. Adams 8, L. Moore 5, E. Evans 2 – TOTALS 11 7-9 7 50
BRADFORD – L. Canan 15, R. Dotson 12, A. Helman 6, Megan Wood 4, B. Crickmore 2 – TOTALS 5 2-4 9 39
Megan3-POINTERS
Bethel 7 (Z. Drummond 4, A. Adams 2, L. Moore 1)
Bradford 9 (L. Canan 5, R. Dotson 4)
SCORE by QUARTERS
12-10-14-14 50 Bethel
07-08-14-10 39 Bradford