Austy Miller's 34-points leads Bradford to lopsided non-conference win over Northridge
BRADFORD – The Bradford Lady Railroaders defeated the visiting Northridge Lady Polar Bears 77-12 in Tuesday night non-conference basketball action with the entire Lady Roaders team seeing time on the court.
“Obviously Northridge is down,” said Bradford coach, Chris Besecker. “They’re trying to rebuild their program and hopefully that happens for them. We used the night to work on our offensive schemes and our defensive schemes – try to fine tune some things.”
The Lady Roaders raced out to a 20-4 first quarter advantage led by 17 Austy Miller points including three 3-pointers, three 2-point baskets and a perfect 2-2 at the line.
Period No. 2 saw Bradford get balanced scoring with five Lady Railroaders making it in the scoring column; Megan Wood and Abby Fike each with 4-points each, Brooklyn Crickmore 3-points, Izzy Hamilton 1-point and Miller 7-points including her fourth triple of the first half sending the teams to the break with Bradford holding a commanding 39-6 lead.
“Brooklyn (Crickmore) is coming along,” Besecker said of his 5’10” sophomore center. “She has some ways to go – she lost some time last year with injuries but she is our big size inside. It was good for her to have a good game.”
The second half was played entirely with a running clock having met the required point spread. Miller led five Lady Roaders in third quarter scoring with 10-points including her fifth and sixth 3-pointers of the game to send the game to the fourth quarter with Bradford leading 64-9. Wood added 6-points, Rylee Canan 4-points, Crickmore 3-points and Fike 2-points to round out third quarter scoring.
“Our freshman; Meghan Wood did some nice things around the basket,” Besecker said. “The good thing about her, she has a nose for the ball at the offensive end. She goes to the offensive glass when the ball gets up in the air and that is something this team really needs. She is providing that for us this year and it’s good to see.”
Bradford closed out the night taking the final quarter 13-3 with scoring coming from Canan’s 5-points including a triple, a 3-ponter each from Alexis Barhorst and Fike and Savannah Lingo 2-point basket.
“Rylee (Canan) and Abby (Fike) are pretty consistent and between those three seniors (Miller, Fike, Canan) from preseason on they’ve been the core of this team,” Coach Besecker stated. “They provide great leadership in practice and their effort is indicative of what we ask of them. They’re doing a great job of leading the team.”
Austy Miller led Bradford and all scorers with a game high 34-points including six 3-pointers, all coming in the first three quarters of the game.
“It was good to see Austy shoot the ball well,” Coach Besecker noted. “She’s been struggling of late and part of it is when we get up against our good opponents they focus on her, they try to take her out of the game at the offensive end. We see a lot of box and ones – probably going to see a couple coming up here.”
BOXSCORE
BRADFORD 77, NORTHRIDGE 12
BRADFORD – A. Miller 34, R. Canan 11, M. Wood 10, A. Fike 9, B. Crickmore 7, A. Barhorst 3, S. Lingo 2, I. Hamilton 1 – TOTALS
NORTHRIDGE – D. Deavers 9, A. Muhammed 3
3-POINTERS
Bradford 9 (A. Miller 6, A. Barhorst 1, A. Fike 1, R. Canan 1)
Northridge 3 (D. Deavers 2, A. Muhammed 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
20-19-25-13 77 Bradford
04-02-03-03 12 Northridge
