Wednesday night’s contest between the Bradford girls and Elk Catholic featured two teams on opposite ends of the win-loss spectrum. But you’d have a hard time telling that by watching the game itself, as the two sides fought tooth and nail for 32 minutes.
In the end, the Lady Crusaders (12-3, 4-1) came out on top with the 48-44 win for their fifth straight victory. They were led by Reilly Herzing, who finished with a game-high 22 points.
While it was another disappointing loss for Bob Hannon’s crew, the Lady Owls’ (1-15, 1-4) coach was proud of the effort and toughness his team displayed.
The team’s shortcomings in this game were the same ones that have popped up over the course of the season: too many turnovers and not enough rebounds.
“We’re not that far away when we play the way we’re capable of playing,” Hannon said. “But the two things that have plagued us all year are not taking care of the ball and rebounding, and they were the two obvious reasons we lost that game tonight.”
Herzing came out hot for the Lady Crusaders, scoring her team’s first seven points in the game by getting into the paint for easy layups. The Owls had no answer for Herzing early on, as she netted 11 points in the first quarter alone.
Apart from that matchup, though, Bradford actually played some solid team defense early on, forcing numerous misses by ECC.
“I thought we moved pretty well [defensively],” Hannon said. “In the first half I think we overcompensated covering the outside game rather than paying attention to where we should have been in the middle, and they took advantage of getting it into the middle and breaking us down off of that.”
Indeed, the Lady Crusaders didn’t make a single 3-pointer in the game, relying on close-range and mid-range shots for their offense.
A late steal and transition basket by Bri Wells (who led Bradford with 20 points) tied the game at 13-13 after eight minutes. The sequence was a desperately-needed boost of momentum for the Lady Owls, who weren’t moving the ball around all that well in the offensive zone.
Neither team found much of a rhythm in the second quarter: Bradford was far too sloppy with the basketball, while the Crusaders missed several free throw attempts.
For a team possessing such a strong record, the Lady Crusaders were struggling quite a bit offensively. ECC got plenty of open looks but were unable to convert many opportunities in the second frame.
Thanks to the play of Herzing, however, the Crusaders’ offense started to come on near the end of the first half.
ECC held a 22-21 lead at halftime. Bradford was hanging tough, getting the rebounds they needed to and scoring enough to stay within striking distance.
Hannon pointed to the defensive play of young players like Emily Warner and Kelcie Moffett as a key reason why they were able to keep the Crusaders’ offense in check.
“They’re both freshmen and they’re both learning,” Hannon said about the young duo. “They’re going against two seniors in [Cassidy] Cunningham and Herzing. I thought they held their own.”
Hannon added, however, that as the game wore on the ECC players’ physical advantage began to show.
“The one thing you see with us is those girls are much stronger inside than we are and our young girls have to learn that if you want to compete at that level, you have to get stronger,” he said.
The Owls were able to take the lead early in the second half when some nice passing resulted in a basket by Brinya Moffett (nine points) to give Bradford a 23-22 advantage.
However, the rebounding problems that have been so prevalent for the Owls this year showed up once again. Whether it was on the offensive or defensive end, Bradford’s players simply didn’t put themselves in the right position on errant shots.
The defense continued to remain stout, though, as Wells was able to force a couple of late turnovers to keep the Owls’ deficit to 36-33 heading into the fourth quarter.
But any chances to try to establish momentum late in the game were often halted by errant passes or careless ball-handling.
“I would’ve liked to have a few of those careless turnovers back,” Hannon said. “But what do you do? You try to learn from them.”
With just over five minutes left, ECC’s Taylor Newton (four points) made a great spin move to score and give the Crusaders a 40-33 lead.
The Owls were able to cut the deficit to one on two separate occasions, but ECC’s domination on the boards and ability to get to the free throw line proved too much to overcome.
“I know we’re young experience-wise, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating because I thought that was a game that our girls had chances,” Hannon said.
The Lady Owls will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to face Warren in their final non-league contest of the season.
At BRADFORD
Elk Catholic (48)
Kear 1 4-7 6, Newton 2 0-4 4, Smith 3 0-0 6, Cassidy Cunningham 3 4-4 10, Reilly Herzing 9 4-5 22, Totals 18 12-20 48.
Bradford (44)
Marshall 4 0-0 9, Maley 0 2-2 2, Bri Wells 8 3-6 20, B. Moffett 3 3-4 9, Warner 1 2-2 4, Totals 16 10-14 44.
Elk Catholic 13 22 36 48
Bradford 13 21 33 44
Three-point FGs: Elk Catholic 0; Bradford 2 (Marshall, Wells)
Total fouls: Elk Catholic 13, Bradford 18. Fouled out: none
JV score: Elk Catholic 35-25
