Rams stymie Irish during milestone night

Bradds, Kelly both hit 1,000th career points, but Greeneview prevails.

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By Jeff Gilbert, Contributing Writer 11:53 PM Tuesday, January 31, 2012

JAMESTOWN — Celebrations were in style Tuesday night at Greeneview High School. The Rams’ Evan Bradds and Catholic Central’s Brian Kelly each surpassed the 1,000-point mark.

But more importantly to Bradds and his teammates was their fourth-quarter shutdown of the Irish that carried Greeneview to a 59-42 Ohio Heritage Conference victory.

The win kept the Rams in first place in the OHC, a game ahead of Mechanicsburg, and pretty much put an end to any Irish title aspirations.

“It’s cool,” Bradds said of reaching 1,000 points in his junior year, “but I’m just glad we won.”

Greeneview (11-4, 9-1) went to a 2-3 zone defense in the fourth and held Central (10-4, 7-4) scoreless for more than five minutes. By the time Central scored, Greeneview’s 44-37 lead at the end of the third quarter had grown to 55-37.

The Rams had threatened to blow the Irish out in the third quarter when Bradds capped an 8-0 run to start the half with a dunk for a 38-24 lead. Central rallied against Greeneview’s man-to-man defense as Kelly scored nine points in a 13-4 run to cut the Rams’ lead to 42-37.

“I thought I made a mistake not going zone quicker,” Greeneview coach Bill Green said.

The zone took away Central’s ability to attack the basket, a style the Irish much prefer to shooting 3-pointers. The Irish made only one field goal in the fourth quarter and were outscored 15-5.

“They wanted to try to make us shoot from the outside because what we focus on is trying to attack,” Central coach Dan Shay said. “And we’re not a very good 3-point shooting team.”

Central’s defensive challenge was to slow down the 6-foot-7 Bradds, but he scored 28 points in a variety of ways. Shay said the plan was to make Bradds work hard for every point and hope that he could be contained. But every time the Rams put together a run, Bradds was scoring most of those points.

“We did what we tried to do, but he’s just that good,” Shay said of Bradds. “We played with all kinds of intensity and with a lot of pride and a lot of heart. It’s just that he’s that good.”

Bradds’ ability to score from the perimeter, to drive and post up creates matchup problems for every team in the OHC. And he was 9-for-10 at the free-throw line.

“He’s tough ... he’s tough,” Green said. “I’ll have more comments at the end of the season. I’ll just say he’s a real good player. I’m glad he’s at Greeneview ... let’s put it that way.”

Kelly, a senior, had a big night for Central with 20 points, and he got a game ball signed by each of his teammates in honor of his milestone. “It means a lot,” Kelly said. “I just want to thank my teammates and my coaches. I couldn’t have done it without them. They’ve had a lot of faith in me and I appreciate it.”

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