MOVING FORWARD...is National Trail as it has shown to be an up-and-coming program in the Cross County Conference.

Story by Bob Moore
The National Trail Blazers survived a hot second quarter run by the Bradford Railroaders to earn their third win in the Cross County Conference. The ‘Roaders came out steaming in the first half and shot 7 for 11 from the field in the second quarter to take a 7 point lead into the break, but couldn’t sustain the momentum into the second half. The Blazers went on to earn a six point victory, 57 – 51.

Jason Wood is into his 2nd year as the head coach at Bradford and the difference between this year’s team from those in the recent past is noticeably different.

The biggest difference is the effort on defense and rebounding. The 2-3 zone employed against the Blazers tonight was effective, especially in the first half. The Bradford players hustled and made a conscious effort to box out. And that is not always the easiest task to accomplish when playing a zone defense.

The bright spot for Bradford is that they are young and they have players with basketball sense who want to play basketball. The Roaders started 4 sophomores and a senior and the sophomores made a game out of it in the first half.

Sophomores Phillip Jones and Doug Canaan busted 3 treys in the first quarter to help Bradford keep pace with the Blazers. Tyler Rhodus had 7 of his 9 points to lead the charge for National Trail in the first quarter and the Blazers took 15 – 11 lead.

In the second quarter Jones nailed his 3rd trey of the first half to lead an 11 – 2 run for the Roaders that put them up 5, 17 – 22.

Trail is able to stop the bleeding with some help off the bench as Zack Ebersole scored 5 points that helped the Blazers climb within one point with just under 3 minutes in the half.

Two more sophomores would bookend a 9 – 3 point run for the ‘Roaders. Logan Looker started the run with a trey and Cody Shafer would end it with a trey at the buzzer that gave Bradford a 26 – 33 lead going into the locker room.

The thoughts of ending the conference losing drought (99-00 season was last Roader conference win) started to erode in the third quarter. National Trail started the second half hitting their first 3 shots to tie the game at 33.

As hot as the Roaders were in the first half shooting, the second half would turn the rims into ice and they produced 4 points in the 3rd quarter.

Malachi Jones and Ben Beck scored 5 and 4 points that led a 16 point performance in the 3rd quarter for the Blazers. Trail led by 5, 42 – 37 going into the final quarter.

Free throw shooting would be the Achilles’ heal in the 4th quarter for Bradford as they shot 9 – 20. The Blazers were able to build their lead as high as 11 points in the quarter and were able to hold on down the stretch to win, 57 - 51.

“In the first half we were 11 for 22 from the field and in the second half we were 3 for 22 and it is just hard to win when we do that” noted Coach Wood in his post game comments. “That has happened to us all year where we go through spells where we just can’t score, we don’t make shots.”

“We had a chance to get back into the game with the clock stopped if we just hit some free throws down the stretch” noted Woods.

“The kids played hard and I’m proud of their effort. I thought they executed well and we got the shots that we needed, but we just didn’t make them in the second half.” “Trail made shots in the second half and we didn’t and that is the difference in the game.”

Some straight talk is what National Trail needed from their Coach Mike Harrison at half time.

“One of things about this team over the last couple years is that they just haven’t handled adversity well. You saw that in the first half with Bradford playing well and shooting the ball. Instead of rising up to meet the challenge, we just crumbled. That was basically the half time talk, if you’re going to beat anybody you have to be able to withstand some adversity.”

“I was happy with my kid’s composure in the 3rd quarter and they were able to get some shots to go down which helped us pick things up on the other end of the floor” continued Harrison. “We were patient enough offensively starting half out that we were able to get the ball to Ben inside the paint and got some easy baskets.”

“I’m happy with kids with how hard they play. There are always going to be things that we need to get better at and things which I think we should be getting better at quicker. But the kids’ effort is there, they want to get better and they love basketball. They’re good kids and I’m enjoying coaching them.”

Scoring by quarters
National Trail…15…26…42…57
Bradford………11…33…37…51

National Trail
Jones – 9
Catron – 6
Kimberlin – 4
Abner – 5
Rhodus – 9
Ebersole – 5
Beck – 12
Coggin – 6
Vance – 1

Bradford
Looker – 13
Canaan – 8
Sanderson – 4
Jones – 12
Phillips – 6
Shafer – 6
Wood – 2

3 Point Goals
National Trail 2 (Jones, Abner)
Bradford 5 (Jones 3, Looker, Shafer)