Bradford’s Austy Miller fends off Lehman Catholic’s Mara O’Leary as she drives to the basket Thursday night.
Rob Kiser|Miami Valley Today
Lehman Catholic’s Taylor Geise makes a pass as Bradford’s Isabella Hamilton defends on the play.
Rob Kiser|Miami Valley Today
Bradford’s Brooklyn Crickmore tries to get a shot over Lehman Catholic’s Heidi Toner Thursday night.
Rob Kiser|Miami Valley Today
Lehman Catholic’s Heidi Toner drives to the basket against Bradford’s Brooklyn Crickmore Thursday night.
Rob Kiser|Miami Valley Today
SIDNEY — The Bradford girls basketball team used a strong first half in a 59-34 win over Lehman Catholic at Lehman in the opener of a girls/boys varsity doubleheader Thursday night.
Bradford jumped out to a 14-5 first quarter lead and stretched it to 31-8 at halftime, with Austy Miller scoring 14 in the first half.
“I thought we played pretty good defense in the first half,” Bradford coach Chris Besecker, who picked up his 400th win early this season, said. “I thought we got a little lackadaisical in the second half at time.”
Lehman showed some fight in the second half.
With Mara O’Leary scoring six points in the third quarter and Heidi Toner adding four, the Cavaliers outpointed Bradford 13-11 in the period.
And Layla Platfoot added six points in the fourth quarter.
“That’s what we talked about at halftime,” Lehman coach Mark Mays said. “Are we going to continue to fight when we hit some bumps in the road like we did tonight against a very good Bradford team? That kids did (showed a lot of fight). We just have to keep working and getting better.”
Bradford’s standout guard Austy Miller led the Railroaders with 31 points, nine rebounds and nine steals.
“She has been doing that for a long time,” Mays said. “She is an outstanding players. She does that to a lot of people.”
Isabella Hamilton added eight points and Abby Fike scored seven points.
Rylee Canan had seven points, six rebounds, five assists and nine steals and Brooklyn Crickmore grabbed 12 rebounds.
“We have a freshman out there,” Besecker said. “We had a girl throw her shoulder out in warmups tonight. Any minutes we get from Lexi Barhorst is a blessing. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t know if we were going to get any.”
Lehman got 10 points from Mara O’Leary.
Toner scored seven and Platfoot added six.
Bradford, 8-2, is off until Tuesday when it plays Russia at 3 p.m. in the Covington Holiday Tournament. It will be the first of two games with the Raiders in the next two weeks.
“The biggest thing is we have played five games in 10 days,” Besecker said. “It will be nice to get a break for a couple days.”
Lehman, 4-6, is off until Thursday when the Cavaliers travel to Ansonia.
