COVINGTON — The Bradford Railroaders held off the Covington BUCCS, 74-64, in the opening round of the Buccaneers Holiday Classic at Covington High School in a physical contest that saw a total of 48 fouls whistled on the night.
“We’re just now starting to see what Bradford is capable of,” said first-year head coach Dillon McCullough. “Slowly but surely.”
The non-conference matchup opened at a deliberate pace, with Bradford edging the first quarter 8-5. The game picked up offensively in the second period as the Railroaders’ Greg Chowning and 6-foot-5 junior Rallie Wirrig sparked the attack with eight points apiece. Covington stayed within striking distance by pouring in 17 second-quarter points, paced by nine from Angle, but Bradford carried a 31-22 lead into the halftime break.
Covington battled back in the third quarter, outscoring the Railroaders 25-21 behind another nine-point effort from Angle. Wirrig answered for Bradford with 11 points in the period, helping the Railroaders maintain a 52-47 edge heading into the final eight minutes.
“We did awesome at handling the moment,” McCullough said. “Early in the season, we would have lost that game, but we rallied behind each other. That’s been part of our motto lately.”
Bradford put the game away in the fourth quarter as Wirrig again delivered 11 points, matching his third-quarter output, to lead the Railroaders to a 22-17 advantage in the period and seal the 10-point victory.
“We’ve been preaching ways to finish out games, and part of that is Greg and Rallie can’t do everything,” McCullough said. “Our guards and other bigs can contribute, and I thought we did awesome tonight. We scored our highest total of the year. Defensively, we also need to focus in. We gave up a lot of points, so now we have to figure out how to not give up as many while still scoring.”
McCullough also credited the team’s preparation.
“We’ve been competing so hard in practice, and that’s made everyone trust each other because they know the work everyone is putting in,” he said. “That led to winning this game. Everyone got behind the leadership of the team, and Rallie took us there — and we rallied around Rallie.”
Bradford was 18-34 at the free throw line for 53 percent shooting while Covington was 13-18 for 72 percent.
Wirrig led Bradford and all scorers with a game-high 29 points.
BOX SCORE:
BRADFORD 74, COVINGTON 64
BRADFORD – R. Wirrig 29, A Felver 14, Z. Lingo 12, G. Chowning 11, C. Gambill 5, R. Wombold 3 – TOTALS 16 18-34 8 74
COVINGTON – B. Angle 18, B. Denson 17, K. Welbom 14, J. Wackler 7, R. Robbins 6, L. Cassel 2 – TOTALS 12 13-18 9 64
3-POINTERS
Bradford 8 (Z. Lingo 3, G. Chowning 2, A. Felver 2, C. Gambill 1)
Covington 9 (B. Denson 3, K. Welbom 2, B. Angle 2, J. Wackler 2)
SCORE by QUARTERS
08-23-21-22 74 Bradford
05-17-25-17 64 Covington
