PIQUA – The No. 2 seed Troy Christian Eagles defeated the No. 12 seed Bradford Railroaders 66-47 in OHSAA DIV sectional tournament play.
“You say you wish things would have gone better but at the end of the day I am proud of how they did, how they competed,” said Bradford coach, Alex Swabb. “Obviously everybody loses but one team. No matter where you go out it’s never fun.”
Bradford was quickly facing a 2-7 deficit to open first-quarter play before using a 9-0 run to lead 11-7 bringing a timeout from the Eagles bench.
Troy Christian battled back to knot the score at 13-13 and close out first-quarter play with a 17-15 lead.
Bradford struggled in the second period dropping the quarter 15-7 to the Eagles sending the game to the break with Troy Christian holding a double-digit 37-27 lead.
The Eagles added to its lead taking the third quarter 19-8 giving Troy Christian a 51-33 advantage with the game going to the fourth period of play.
Troy Christian opened the fourth on a 6-0 run to lead by 25 at 58-33 and pulled before closing out the game with a 19-point win.
“We have a good group,” Swabb stated. “Hopefully it continues going into next season for them.”
Bradford seniors, Landon Wills (19 points) and Hudson Hill (15 points) paced the Roaders in their final basketball game playing for the Bradford Railroaders.
“Those senior guys Hudson Hill and Landon Wills, to see what they’ve done turned around the culture in this basketball program – very proud of them for that and winning a postseason game for the first time in 25, 30 years for the program. It’s a good way to go out.”
Eagles’ 5’10” senior, Parker Penrod led Troy Christian and all scorers with a game-high 30 points.
BOXSCORE:
TROY CHRISTIAN – P. Penrod 30, A. Free 10, F. Rupnik 6, C. Brusman 5, B. Hochwait 4, R. Taylor 4, E. Grise 3, A. Taylor 2 – TOTALS 22 7-9 5 66
BRADFORD – L. Wills 19, H. Hill 15, O. Canan 7, R. Wirrig 5, G. Trevino 1 – TOTALS 16 6-14 3 47
3-POINTERS
Troy Christian 5 (P. Penrod 4, E. Grise 1)
Bradford 3 (H. Hill 3)
SCORE by QUARTERS
17-15-19-15 66 Troy Christian
15-07-11-14 47 Bradford
