BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Bradford High School’s boys basketball scored the first 13 points and clamped down defensively, holding visiting Bell to just three field goals in the first half en route to a 59-30 Region 3-1A semifinal win tonight.
Shayne Davis scored 19 points for the Tornadoes (13-10), who’ll host Madison County (16-11) for the Region 3 championship on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m.
Bradford played Bell (15-13) six nights before, defeating the Bulldogs for the District 6 championship despite a 34-point game from Bell’s Daniel Pittman.
Pittman scored 21 in the Region 3 semifinal, but the Tornadoes did a much better job of limiting his post-up opportunities. Bradford Head Coach Sampson Jackson said when you discounted his post touches that he passed the ball back out, Pittman had only nine opportunities down low.
“Going into that district championship, we knew they had a really good post player,” Jackson said, “but we were just relying on our talent to guard him. This week, we worked on a scheme to guard him, and it worked for us.”
What also worked was Bradford’s overall defensive pressure, which forced the Bulldogs into nine turnovers in the first quarter. It was a 5-0 game when a Davis steal led to an eventual basket off Torin Brazell’s offensive rebound. Davis, who had nine points in the quarter, later scored on a drive to the basket, picking up a foul in the process and making the ensuing free throw for a 10-0 lead.
At the end of the quarter, Robbie Simmons-Godwin scored off a Davis assist to send the Tornadoes into the second quarter leading 13-0.
Approximately a minute into the second quarter, Bell scored its first point off a Pittman free throw.
Hunter Crawford had two baskets off offensive rebounds to help put the Tornadoes up 21-5 before the Bulldogs finally got their first field goal, which came from Pittman with 3:59 remaining in the first half.
Bell, which trailed 26-14, got off to a good start in the third quarter, with Pittman forcing a turnover and then later scoring. Bradford, however, responded with a 12-0 run, which included five points from Chalil Cummings and four points from Davis.
Cummings scored nine points in all in the second half and finished with 13 overall.
The Tornadoes also got six points each from Crawford and Amari Jones, five points from Jontez Williams, four points each from Simmons-Godwin and Dae’Jon Shanks, and two points from Brazell.
Cummings grabbed 11 rebounds, while Shanks and Davis had seven and six, respectively.
Davis, Jones and Shanks each had three steals, with Jones also recording three assists.
Jackson said he’s seeing the improvement in his team, which is playing with its lineup intact after missing players here and there for most of the season due to injuries and college visits by players being recruited to play football.
Bradford is on a five-game winning streak.
“They’re clicking, and they’re working now,” Jackson said. “Everybody understands what their role is and they’re playing toward that. It’s not playing toward opponents’ names anymore. It’s playing against the game and doing everything right.”
