Riley Bradshaw Leads Blue Devils Back to State

The fearsome duo of junior guard Riley Bradshaw (left) and senior guard Rodee Anderson (right) return to the State A Tournament.

 

March 1, 2011

The term “career performance” is not a light phrase when it comes to the talented play of Corvallis’ Riley Bradshaw: but the junior point guard will be hard-pressed to find better days than he had last night.

With a state tournament berth on the line, Bradshaw lit up the court for 41 points en route to Corvallis’ 71-56 win over Stevensville.  He was 6-7 from beyond the arc and 11-13 at the charity stripe.

The Yellowjackets meanwhile went just 5-22 from three as a team and thus played in their final game of the season.  Josh Schultz led Stevi scorers with 19 in the contest.

The Blue Devils take the #2 seed from the Southwest into Butte this week for the Class A State Tournament.  The road goes uphill for the Devils who will face the defending State Champion Laurel Locomotives at 2:00 PM Thursday in the first round.

Having covered Corvallis very closely this season, the Blue Devils have a definite chance to beat anybody and everybody at State.  Stevi is a very talented team, but despite double-teaming Bradshaw nearly every possession he still found 41 points last night.  Couple Bradshaw with the quickness and perimeter shooting that Rodee Anderson brings to the table and you have nearly unstoppable guard play.

However Corvallis lacks a solid post presence, and that is a very large ‘Achilles heel’ to have.  Their posts fight hard and know their roles, but they are undersized against nearly every team Corvallis faces.

If the opposition allows Corvallis to execute their high tempo fast-break attack then their chances of keeping up offensively are slim to none.  However if they focus on their transition defense and force the Devils to slow it down, they’ll have a chance.  The biggest key will be rebounding: between Corvallis being undersized and their lights-out shooting, the opposition will need to utilize size advantage to limit the number of Corvallis possessions.  Because if you give the Bradshaw-Anderson duo enough touches… they will beat you.

Riley Bradshaw and Rodee Anderson Highlights

‘Tis the Season

February 26, 2010

Well today was a feast of high school basketball… and a good amount of driving.  I covered four games at the Class A Divisional tournament in Hamilton.  I got to the station at about noon to pick up a camera and head out to catch the second half of the 12:30 semifinal game.  However, when I got to the station I saw that we were completely out of cameras (I problem that’s been occurring more and more).

At first I tried coordinating a camera switch with Kevin, who was already shooting a court story in Hamilton, but as he was running low on batteries, I elected to just wait 15 minutes for Christian to get back with his.  Sure enough I didn’t have to wait long for his return and I snatched his small camera (an annoyance for shooting sports… on the bright side keeping a steady shot with small cameras has been strengthening my left tricep) and headed out.

I got to the gym at halftime of the boys semifinal game between the Dillon Beavers and the Hamilton Broncs.  Unfortunately for the hometown Broncs, they had no chance at victory against the superior Dillon squad.  Hamilton shot a dismal 18% from the field, as it seemed they were trying to score five points every possession they had the ball.  Needless to say they were unsuccessful in their hurried efforts and turned the ball over 21 times in the contest.  Embarrassingly enough, the mercy rule clock (where the clock runs continuously if one team is ahead by 40 or more points) had to be kicked into action during the final minute of play.  In fact, a Broncs player couldn’t even get his second free throw off in time when the buzzer sounded to spell a 64-23 Beavers win.

Following that game, I stayed for the first quarter and change of a semifinal matchup in the girls bracket between the Anaconda Lady Copperheads  and Frenchtown.  Anaconda looked head and shoulders above the Lady Broncs right out of the gate as they jumped out to a 35-9 lead before halftime could pause the massacre.  I had to leave at that point to head back to the station and make my edits for the 6:00, but Anaconda went on to handle Frenchtown by a final of 64-38.

Three and a half hours, two highlight sequences, and 94 miles later:  I walk back into Dale Berry court for more Hamilton-hosted basketball.  This time I get to cover an entire game as I’m in time for tip-off of the semifinal between the Stevensville Yellowjackets and the Corvallis Blue Devils.  This game was one of the highest intensity contests I’ve ever covered as it was clear that the two teams were not fond of each other.  Considering the geographical separation of just 14 miles, it was easy to understand the rivalry vibe these teams were emitting on the hardwood.  Both teams love to run up and down the court and certain segments of the game felt more like a hockey game.  And, like many rivalry games, the intensity and nerves caused for general ineptness in offensive execution.  The teams went into the locker rooms tied at 21 for halftime.  However, Corvallis had a stroke of offensive efficiency in the third quarter where they outscored the Yellowjackets 14-6 to take control of the game.  The Blue Devils went on to win the game 47-37.  That outcome pits the Blue Devils (14-5) against Dillon (16-3) for the divisional championship tomorrow night.

The nightcap contest for my hoops-frenzied day was a girls semifinal matchup between Stevensville and Dillon.  Both teams struggled to score in the contest as the game remained in single digits until the second quarter.  I had to leave before halftime to get back to Missoula and make edits for the 10:00 news, but Stevensville ended up with the low-scoring victory 36-30 over Dillon.  That puts the Lady Jackets (11-9) into the Championship game vs. Anaconda (15-4) tomorrow night.

12 hours after arriving to the station… I went home.  Gotta love the high school basketball playoff time of year!