Telegraph Staff Writer
It certainly wasn’t pretty, but what matters is the Bradford High School girls basketball team won, defeating Dixie County 31-23 in the semifinals of the District 6-1A tournament on Feb. 3.
Now, the Tornadoes (9-10) have a chance to win the district championship. It’ll be a matchup against the tournament’s top-two teams, with second-seed Bradford taking on top-seed Fort White (16-2) on Friday, Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m. at Fort White High School.
The semifinal game between the Tornadoes and third-seed Dixie (8-11) saw both teams struggling shooting and handling the ball. The game featured more than 40 turnovers, while the Bears connected on only seven of 46 field-goal attempts.
Bradford wasn’t much better from the field (13 of 44), but the Tornadoes did make six of nine field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter, getting the crucial points they needed to hang onto their lead and get the win.
The Bears missed their first eight field-goal attempts, but the game was tied 2-2 until Bernaria Nichols made a three-pointer. Bradford never gave up the lead after that.
Each team committed five turnovers at the start of the second quarter, but Santee Blye finally put points on the board with a basket to put the Tornadoes ahead 9-4. Breanna Boyd answered with a basket for the Bears, who later added three points on free throws to make it an 11-9 game.
Before Dixie could get any closer, Bradford’s Jada Hankerson scored off her own steal to make it 13-9.
Each team had the chance to add points in the latter stages of the second quarter, but Dixie missed two free throws, while Bradford missed three. That sent the teams into halftime with the score still standing at 13-9.
Approximately five minutes elapsed in the third quarter before that score changed, with the Tornadoes’ Aniyah Carroll finally ending the drought with a transition basket that put Bradford ahead 15-9.
A free throw by Blye and a basket by Hankerson allowed the Tornadoes to go into the fourth quarter leading 18-12.
Bradford scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, two coming off a Blye basket after she rebounded a missed free throw.
Hankerson, who led all scorers with 12 points, made three field goals in the final quarter. One gave the Tornadoes a 25-16 lead. Dixie would then score five of the next seven points to pull to within six, but Hankerson then hit a pull-up jumper at the foul line. That was followed by a basket by Carroll to make the score 31-21.
Blye finished with eight points, while Carroll and Ajiyah Jackson each had four. Nichols added three points.
The Tornadoes got 10 rebounds from Blye, while Jackson grabbed seven.
Hankerson had 10 steals.
