January 24. 2006

Bradford lifts Eagles
over St. Joseph's

MATT KOPSEA
Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- A poor performance from the free-throw line didn't seem to have a negative effect on Culver Academy's Tommy Bradford on Monday night

Despite going just 4-of-12 from the charity stripe, Bradford still managed to score a game-high 20 points, lifting Culver Academy past St. Joseph's, 51-39, in boys high school basketball action at Alumni Gym.

The 6-foot-3 senior forward did the majority of his damage in the second half with 16 points, sinking seven of eight field-goal attempts, to help the Eagles (5-7) build on a 25-23 halftime lead.

"Considering we gave the kids Saturday off, I thought without any preparation that we responded with a good team performance tonight," said Culver Academy coach Tommy Mascari. "Tommy's usually a pretty good free-throw shooter, but he didn't let that affect the rest of his game tonight.

"He did a nice job of getting himself in position offensively for some good shots at the basket," said Mascari. "His teammates also deserve a hand too for their part in getting him the ball."

Fresh off their emotional victory over rival Marian on Friday, the Indians (7-7) seemed to have some of that same momentum early on by jumping to an 11-6 advantage.

A 3-pointer by Jacob Kohr in the final seconds of the opening period, though, seemed to breathe some life into Culver Academy.

This was evident as Kohr and Sergio Zermeno combined for 11 points in the second quarter to help the Eagles open up a 25-20 cushion.

Despite being hampered by foul trouble and poor outside shooting, St. Joe still managed to scratch its way back to tie the game at 30 with 2:43 left in the third quarter.

However, Bradford and Kohr combined for 10 points during a 13-5 spurt to help the visitors regain command.

It proved to be a second-half to forget for St. Joe, which shot 7-of-27 from the floor and went scoreless over the final 3:31 of the contest.

"We kept preaching to the kids that we had to protect our win over Marian and try to build off of that," said St. Joe coach Keith Kurowski. "Instead, we came out flat and had our worst shooting performance of the season (32 percent)."

Mike Danielson had 10 points for the Indians, who shot just 4-of-22 from 3-point range Monday night and now must regroup for a Friday home game with No. 10-ranked Penn (11-1).

"What's really disappointing, though, was the way we performed defensively," Kurowski continued. "We had too many breakdowns and let them penetrate to the basket and dictate the tempo."

Kohr chipped in 14 points and John Herbert hauled down 10 rebounds for the Eagles, who finished 14-of-26 from the free throw line.

"I can tell you that we're probably going to spend an 1 1/2 hours shooting free throws at practice on Tuesday," joked Mascari.

CULVER ACADEMY 51, ST. JOSEPH'S 39

At South Bend

CULVER ACADEMY (51): Jacob Kohr 4 5-6 14, David McIntyre 0 0-0 0, Matt Dinwiddie 0 0-0 0, Sergio Zermeno 3 0-1 8, Lucas Larson 0 0-0 0, John Herbert 1 2-4 4, Tommy Bradford 8 4-12 20, Daniel Schumerth 0 0-0 0, Adam Pickrell 0 2- 2 2, Sam Hopkins 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 14-26 51.

ST. JOSEPH'S (39): Connor Kruggel 0 0-0 0, Kevin Paczesny 0 0-0 0, Sam Franszek 2 0-0 6, Mike Danielson 5 0-2 10, Marcus Johnson 3 2-2 8, Ryan Richter 2 0-2 4, Rico Zounlome 0 0-0 0, Jamie Pawelski 1 0-0 3, John Kilbury 1 0-0 3, Adam Onderdonk 0 0-0 0, Travis Thorpe 1 1-1 3, Marcus Macellari 1 0-2 2. TOTALS: 16 3-9 39.