BRADFORD 54, BROOKVILLE 42

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Jan. 9, 2009

By Chris Rossetti

BROOKVILLE – Bradford’s Ryan Mackey picked a heck of a time for a coming out party.

Mackey, the Owls 6-2 junior forward who came into Friday night averaging 4.8 points per game, exploded for 14 in the third quarter alone helping Bradford overcome a 3-point deficit and get a 54-42 win at Brookville in a D9 League boys’ contest.

“It was huge to get him going in the second half,” Bradford head coach Dave Fuhrman said. “I thought he did a real good job getting inside.”

Mackey, who ended the game with a career-high 18 points, was able to get a lot of easy baskets in the third quarter thanks to a defensive show put on by Bradford (5-5 overall, 1-3 D9 League). The Owls forced 13 Brookville turnovers in the quarter and turned them into 15 points while outscoring the Raiders 25-14 in the frame including a game-changing 19-4 run.

“I think our pressure got to them a little bit,” Fuhrman said. “They have a lot of guys who play a lot of minutes. Some of those kids played most of the JV game, and they are playing a whole varsity game. That was our idea, extend the floor, pressure them and hopefully wear them down. We started to do that in the second half. They had some key turnovers that led to some key baskets, and I thought we played much better offensively in the second half.”

All told, Brookville (2-7, 0-5), losers of six straight, turned the ball over 19 times in the second half leading to 19 Bradford points. The Raiders had 36 turnovers in the game.

“We didn’t come ready to play the second half,” Brookville head coach Mike Ion said. “They switched up their defense and came out with some intensity. That’s how it’s been. We’ve been able to battle for a half or three quarters, then we just kind of wear out. We get tired.”

Brookville led by one, 18-17, at halftime thanks to a half-ending 8-2 run and went up by three a couple of times early in the second half, the last at 22-19 on a layup by Taylor Heinrich with 7:01 to play off a pass from Chad Brocious.

But two free throws and a layup by Mackey, whose previous game-high was nine, in a 15-second span following two Brookville turnovers gave Bradford the lead for good at 23-22 with 6:36 left in the third quarter. That started the 19-4 run that featured 12 points from Mackey that put the Owls up 12, 38-26, with 2:58 left in the quarter.

“We started to take the ball inside to Mackey there in the second half,” Fuhrman said. “I think that was the difference in our offense. We also got to the foul line some, we spaced the floor better, we screened better. I just thought we did everything better in the second half.”

Brookville was able to cut the deficit to 10, 42-32, at the end of the quarter and then had a real chance to make a run at Bradford when Jared Heschke scored off a turnover and was fouled 1:02 into the fourth quarter cutting the Owl lead to 42-34. But Heschke missed the free throws that would have cut the lead to seven, and Bradford responded with an 11-2 run that saw Mackey score four points and Evan Kline three to take a 53-36 lead with 3:57 to play.

Chad Brocious led Brookville with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Heschke added 11 points and eight boards.

Pug Fuhrman chipped in 14 points for Bradford.

NOTES – Bradford shot just 33.3 percent (17 of 51) including only 26.9 percent (7 of 26) in the first half that included a woeful 2 of 14 showing the second quarter. Brookville was 37.5 percent (18 of 48) from the floor including 50 percent (12 of 24) in the second half. Bradford had 17 turnovers and was outrebounded 42-32 including 26-16 in the first half, but the Owls were 16 of 27 from the free-throw line and 4 of 14 from 3-point range. Brookville was 5 of 9 from the line and 1 of 8 from beyond the arc.   Mackey added five rebounds and four blocked shots.

BRADFORD 54, BROOKVILLE 42

Score by Quarters

Bradford 12 5 25 12 – 54

Brookville 10 8 14 10 – 42

Bradford – 54

Ryan Mackey 5 8-8 18, Pug Fuhrman 4 2-2 14, Tyler Grandy 3 0-2 6, Mike White 1 3-4 5, Evan Kline 2 1-4 5, Zach Frombach 1 0-1 2, Cody Coats 1 0-0 2, Cory Viola 0 1-4 1, Cody Faucher 0 1-2 1, Charles Fair 0 0-0 0, Trevor Burgoon 0 0-0 0, Connor Borowski 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 16-27 54.

Brookville – 42

Chad Brocious 9 0-0 19, Jared Heschke 5 1-5 11, Taylor Heinrich 3 2-2 8, Ryan Zimmerman 1 0-0 3, Chase Lyle 0 2-2 2, Kyle Baughman 0 0-0 0, Ian McCormack 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 5-9 42.

Three-pointers – Bradford 4 (Fuhrman 4). Brookville 1 (Zimmerman).