COVINGTON – In the opening round of the Buccaneer Holiday Classic, the Covington Buccaneers stunned a very talented Bradford basketball team with a 51-36 victory.
The Buccaneers will face Houston in the championship match tomorrow night at 7:30pm.
What made it a great night for the Buccaneers was the amazing defensive performance throughout the entire game. Bradford is a very talented team, but the Buccaneers were able to limit the Railroaders to just 36 points.
A credit for Bradford does go to senior Owen Canan as he led his team with 22 points, which moved him to over 1000 career points. He is a great athlete who will likely end up in the Bradford Athletic Hall of Fame.
“First of all, congrats to Owen on scoring his 1,000th point,” said Covington coach Logan Carey. “Couldn’t have happened to a better, hard working kid. He’s torched us for years, and it’s very well deserved.”
Fortunately the Buccaneers were able to allow just two more Bradford players to drop in points, which was a total of just 14 more points outside of Owen Canan’s 22 points.
The Buccaneers started out extremely intensive by building an 11-0 lead after the opening tip.
After a Bradford timeout, Covington held up for a 17-6 lead after one.
“The first quarter, we came out ready to roll,” Carey said. “The first seven minutes and thirteen seconds was some really good basketball for us. We forced a shot with forty-three seconds left when I wanted the last shot, but other than that, we were patient offensively and forcing tough contested shots on the defensive end.”
Both teams scored 12 points in the second frame, which held the Buccaneers to a 29-18 lead at the break.
“Then we get a little trigger happy and think every open shot is a great shot and we forget what got us there,” Carey explained as to why Bradford was still in contention. “Sometimes we have to realize it and fix it without taking a timeout.”
The Buccaneers pushed their lead to 37-25 after three periods and then closed out the game with a great fourth period by outscoring Bradford 14-11 down the stretch.
And the way the Buccs played throughout the game put the team into a higher level than what has materialized over the first seven games this season.
“We’ve been in every game and haven’t been able to pull them out.” Carey said. “We talked all week about this tourney being a turning point in our season, the same way it was last year. We had a great showing tonight, and hopefully we are ready to win our first championship tomorrow night. It would be a boost for us when we’ve been so close all year long. It’s time to get over that hump.”
The Buccaneers were led in scoring by senior Brogen Angle, who dropped in a game-high 26 points. Five more players contributed with buckets that accumulated 25 more points.
Covington improves its overall record to 2-6 and hopefully will build its confidence where winning games will increase.
| 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | FINAL | |
| COVINGTON | 17 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 51 |
| BRADFORD | 6 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 36 |
COVINGTON SCORING:
Brogen Angle – 26
Landin Cassel – 7
Brant Angle – 6
Tanner Palsgrove – 5
Reagan Tipps – 5
Tyler Jay – 2
BRADFORD SCORING:
Owen Canan – 22
Rallie Wiring – 9
Greg Chowning – 5
THREE-POINT SCORING:
Covington: Brogen Angle (4), Tanner Palsgrove (1), Reagan Tipps (1)
Bradford: Greg Chowning (1)
