BRADFORD – The Bradford Lady Railroaders under Chris Besecker continue to pick up steam as they obliterated neighborhood rival Newton, 56-22 last Thursday night.
The Bradford squad is now an impressive 15-6 overall and 7-5 in the always competitive Cross County Conference. Bradford has one game left at DeGraff Riverside which will occur perhaps after their first tourney game at Brookville against Yellow Springs in a late Wednesday night game. Newton, which had some definite cold shooting, is now 9-12 and ended up 6-6 in the league, one game behind Bradford’s bunch in the 13-team conference.
Bradford was led by freshman phenom Austy Miller, who continues to get better game after game with an eye-popping 17 points that included three triples from way downtown. Senior night starlet Bianca Keener, who was honored before the game, had 13 points with as many boards. Cassi Mead also joined the double digit scoring brigade as she dropped in two threes in route to her total of 10. The Indians had only Aly Weaver and Brooke Deeter get close to double figures with 7 and 6 points respectively.
The first quarter lead expanded quickly after a trifecta by Mead at the 7-minute mark got the crowd going from Roader nation. After the first hoop it was nothing more than counting the points from various Railroaders as they ripped off 9 of the next 11 points to open up a 12-2 lead after eight minutes of action. Bradford was very generous in distributing the ball as it had five different players score in just eight minutes of play. Leading the pack was Keener raining down 4 points on the Indians. Newton had Mallory Dunlevy and Brooke Deeter with one apiece for their total point production.
The second quarter saw points flooding in from all directions as both squads got the recipe for unlocking the proverbial lid from the basket. Newton popped in an impressive double digit total of 11 which was nine less than they scored for the entire game. Not to be outdone, the Railroaders unloaded four 3-pointers in their 19-point quarter. Which increased their lead to 18 points after 16 minutes at 31-13. Newton was led by Deeter 5 of her total of 6 points in this frame, followed closely by Weaver with 4. Mead motored her way to 7 points followed by four orange and black teammates with 3 apiece.
Third quarter theatrics showed the Railroaders losing no steam leaving no doubt on the outcome of the contest with their suffocating defense and their 3-point efficiency. Bradford brandished the nets with another impressive 17 points while only giving up 3 points to lead 48-16 after 24 minutes of action.
Weaver had all the points in the frame for the Indians with three. Miller erupted for 8 of her 17 points in this 8 minutes of action in Bradford’s last home game of the season. Keener had half of that total with four by powering in two buckets underneath.
The fourth quarter was all but deciding what the final score would be as subs proliferated from sides of the court. Bradford coming out on top 8-6 in this period with Miller leading the way with 4 points while Newton boasted Jadea Stine with 4.
”We found the range with our 3-pointers tonight as we had an impressive 8 for the game. It was a nice way for Keener to go out in her last home game with 13 points and good defensive work. Miller was contained for awhile as she only had five at half as they had a box and one on her. We had lots of steals and played defense pretty well, but we still had some lapses at times. We finish up with Riverside and they have good size to contend with and are about 50-50 record wise.” Besecker said.
Scoring for Newton – Weaver 7, Dunlevy 3, Camryn Gleason 2, Stine 4 and Deeter 6 for 22 points. One triple, 8 regulars and 3 out of 7 free throws for 43 percent.
Scoring for Bradford – Keener 13, Abby Gade 6, Miller 17, Emma Canan 8, Rylee Canan 2 and Mead with 10 for 56 points. Eight triples, 12 regulars, and 8 out of 12 for 67 percent.
