If you know anything about owls, you know they make a “hoo” sound.
In the days leading up to Bradford’s 69-54 home-opening win over Kane, Owls coach Brian Hobbs found himself making a similar noise to that of his team’s namesake.
Instead of the familiar “hoo,” Hobbs found himself asking a simple question: “Who?”
After losing production from seven seniors that accounted for the bulk of the team’s scoring during the 2017-2018 season, Hobbs wondered who would take his team back to, or further than, his squad the previous year did.
Luckily for Hobbs and his mix of old and new faces, he found the answer to his question in more than one person Friday night.
“We know (Gigliotti) can score,” said Hobbs. “He was one of those guys last year, so we knew he’d come out and produce for us on offense.”
A third team All-District 9 selections as sophomore, Tyler “Gigs” Gigliotti came into Friday night’s game as the Owls leading returning scorer, and his pace didn’t slow down in the slightest.
Gigs continued to produce for the Owls, netting 29 points to lead all scorers.
Outside of him though, Hobbs said he and his coaching staff had no idea who was going to come out of their shell and score for the team in their season opener.
That’s where a new face in the halls of Bradford High came in.
“Gavin Babcock did a great job. It took him a little time to adjust to our system, but he knows how to play. He’s a winner and he knows how to play the game,” Hobbs said.
A transfer from Oswayo Valley, Babcock netted 15 points, draining a trio of buckets from three-point territory while going a perfect 4-4 at the line and adding an additional 2-pointer while grabbing six rebounds.
“Blake Bryant too, he’s a guy who struggled a little bit last year, but I’ve never seen him play that hard,” Hobbs said. “He had some key rebounds for us and a couple put backs. We’re real excited for him and what he did for us tonight.”
On top of his six points, the Owls big man showed off all of his 6”5’ stature grabbing eight boards throughout the night.
Only up by two at half, Hobbs said his team’s defense could use some improvement.
“As far as defensively, I thought we were a little suspect in the first half but we were able to clean things up in the second and were able to score and transition that way,” Hobbs said.
Coming out of the locker room to start the second half of play, the Owls did just that—cleaned up their act. After a few tweaks here and there, the Owls never looked back.
Bradford came out hot after halftime, nearly shutting down the Wolves offense while outscoring them 6-16 in the third quarter to establish a lead they’d carry until the buzzer.
While Bradford ultimately cruised past Kane by a convincing 14 points, the Wolves hung tough with the Owls.
Chad Greville led the Wolves with 19 points while Alex Rezzelle followed close behind with 14.
“As the first game of the season, you never know how it’s going to go,” Hobbs said. Credit to Kane, those kids always play hard. It doesn’t matter what sport they’re in— they’re tough, hard-nosed kids,” Hobbs said.
After the pep band packed up their instruments and the sizeable crowd, complete with a student section dressed in all black, filtered out of Bradford High’s gymnasium, so did the excitement that comes with a season opener in Pennsylvania Big 30 basketball.
Looking forward to the rest of the season, though, it appears the Owls will have a lot to continue being excited about. That is, however, if they can do a few key things.
“The guys last year definitely worked their butts off,” said Hobbs on his 2017-2018 squad that advanced all the way to the D-9 AAAA title game where it fell to Clearfield 42-36. “But if we can play more polished basketball and have our guys step into their roles a little bit better, the opportunity to succeed is definitely there,” Hobbs said.
While Hobbs believes his team still has a long way to go to find itself back in contention for a title, it’s clear his current team comprising of new and old players alike have their work cut out for them heading into the next few months of basketball, and after Friday night they’re certainly on the right track and know “hoo” they can look to lead them throughout the season.
