DUKE CENTER — DaeMone Patterson’s dunks late in the fourth quarter were the exclamation points on what was a nearly flawless game of basketball from the Bradford Owls.

Bradford routed Portville 66-33 for a convincing victory in the opening game of the Randy Stebbins Tournament at Otto-Eldred High School on Friday evening.

After falling behind 5-2 in the game’s opening minute, the Owls (2-1) surged ahead on 16-2 run to close the quarter, and a dominant 34-12 advantage through the rest of the first half.

“It was intensity and execution,” Bradford coach Brian Hobbs said. “One of the things we felt that we needed to do coming in was to be intense and execute and we thought good things would happen. We knew Portville would play hard, as Billy (Torrey) always has those guys playing tough basketball. We knew that we just had to come out and execute, and I think we did. We adjusted to the 2-3 zone a little bit, found the openings, and hit the right guys.”

The Owls were especially potent from the 3-point line in the game, sinking seven treys on just 15 attempts.

One of the makes early in the night came from the hands of 6-foot-5 center Blake Bryant. The senior went off in the second quarter, scoring eight of Bradford’s 18 points while adding a couple of blocks on the defensive end.

According to Hobbs, Friday’s performance is exactly what they’ve been hoping to see from Bryant over the past couple of seasons.

“You know what, he’s a totally different person this year.” Hobbs said. “He’s playing with intensity, he’s playing with the ball above his head, playing with energy and he’s under control. That’s something that we haven’t seen the last couple years from him. We always hoped for it, and he’s creating good habits now and that’s why he’s doing so well.”

The Owls kept up their intensity in the second half as well, outscoring the Panthers 30-16 over the final 16 minutes.

Tyler Gigliotti (15 points) and Gavin Babcock (11) rounded out a Bradford scoring attack that shot 48 percent from the field in the game.

And while there were plenty of exciting plays on both ends of the court from the Owls on Friday, those that were at the ‘Terror Dome’ will surely remember are the four points that Patterson scored late in the fourth quarter.

On both occasions, the 6-foot-2 junior stole the ball, raced past Portville defenders, and finished with nearly flawless one-handed dunks that closed out a statement win by the Owls.  

“Yeah, he had a nice one in our scrimmage and we know he can do it,” Hobbs said with a smile. “It’s getting him to understand when he can do it. Those were nice, those were good dunks, and it’s something that gets our kids going and our fans love to see it.

“He’s worked hard, and worked hard over the summer to get where he’s at. Again, just need that execution and focus from him and good things will happen,” he added of Patterson, who scored all six of his points in the fourth quarter. “He was starting for us early on, and just kind of took a step back. Hopefully tonight will kind of flip the card a little bit and he will get back to himself again.”

As well as Patterson and Bradford’s other playmakers shot the ball on offense, the Owls played nearly as well on the defensive end.

Portville shot just 32 percent for the game, and committed a startling 32 turnovers.

“Our whole mindset is to play hard-nosed defense and to speed the game up a little bit,” Hobbs said. “Try to get people to throw the ball around and fortunately that worked out for us on the defensive end. We just have to continue to play smart on both ends of the ball.”

Bradford advances to play Otto-Eldred in the championship game of the Randy Stebbins Tournament this evening, while Portville plays Oswayo Valley in the consolation contest.

AT DUKE CENTER

Portville (33)

Dalton Tobola 5 2-2 13, Tarr 4 0-0 8, Mathes 2 0-0 6, Pullins 2 0-2 4, Nuffer 0 1-2 1, Griffin 0 0-2 0, Howard 0 1-2 1. Totals: 13 4-10 33

Bradford (66)

Blake Bryant 7 0-0 15, Gavin Babcock 3 3-4 11, Tyler Gigliotti 5 3-3 15, Pattison 1 3-4 5, Knowlton 1 0-0 3, Schmidt 3 0-0 6, Kane 1 1-3 3, Patterson 3 0-0 6. Totals: 24 10-14 66

Portville   7 17 27 33

Bradfrod 18  36 46 66

Three-point goals: Portville 3 (Mathes 2, Tobola), Bradford 6 (Gigliotti 2, Babcock 2, Knowlton, Bryant). Total fouls: Portville 11, Bradford 14; fouled out: none