ATTICA — The Seneca East Tigers have one of the most potent offenses so far in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference so far in this young season, averaging over 63 points per game.
That offense was the undoing of the Bucyrus Redmen.
Seneca East hit 10 of 15 shots in the first quarter to build a 25-11 lead and then rolled to a 78-49 victory Saturday night.
Andrew Kalb scored 13 of his team-high 23 points in the opening period to lead the charge.
“Andrew got off to a hot start,” Seneca East coach Michael Powers said. “He did a much better job of letting the offense come to him instead of trying to force stuff. It was nice to see him rewarded.”
Bucyrus’ Mike Wise matched Kalb nearly point-for-point — the Redmen junior finished with a game-high 25 points — but the difference was the respective supporting casts.
“The middle of the zone was open and to Mike’s credit, he took advantage of it,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “But it was open in other areas and we’ve got to have some other guys who have the opportunity to step up. Those guys can play, we’re just not doing it on a consistent basis.”
Wise scored over half of his team’s 49 points, whereas Kalb had less then a third of the Tigers’ 78. No other Bucyrus (1-3, 1-2 N10) player had more than six points. Two other Seneca East (4-2, 2-2) players were in double figures.
“The majority of our practice is shooting the ball,” Powers said. “That’s how we play — we run, and we shoot. Sometimes we’re not going to make them and that’s when we just have to start moving the ball and take it to the hole.”
As if 10 of 15 wasn’t good enough, the Tigers made six of eight shots in the second period. The Redmen also shot it well in the frame, going seven of 12, to stay within shouting distance at halftime, 43-27.
The third quarter proved to be the knockout punch for the Tigers. They used a 19-10 advantage to blow their lead out to 62-37. After shooting the ball efficiently in the first half, Bucyrus went cold in the third, making only four of 18 attempts from the field.
“I really thought in the third quarter, we came out with a lot of energy,” Egan said. “But we missed five layups to start the third. The kids are trying. They give it a great effort. We’re just trying to knock that door down right now and fight through it.”
The final period was just a matter of setting the final score. The Tigers stretched it slightly with a 16-12 edge in the quarter.
“We wanted to push the tempo early, get off to a lead like we did (Friday) night (against Buckeye Central),” Powers said. “The message at halftime was ‘Let’s finish this game and not let them back in in the third quarter.’ We did a very good job.”
Turner Bridgford seconded Kalb with 13 points for Seneca East, including three 3-point shots. Isaac Mason finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Eight Tigers scored in all and the team made eight 3s.
Grady Jackson and Nick Middleton had six points each in support of Wise’s 25. Middleton had five rebounds.
“This group can play better than they’re playing right now,” Egan said. “It’s my job, obviously, to get them to play better.”
“What happens is, we hit a couple of 3s and that opens up the lane to attack because they started closing out harder,” Powers said. “It was great when we started hitting shots and we just took it to the hole from there.”
“It’s tough on (the kids), I know it is,” Egan said. “But we’ve got to keep going. We have another game Tuesday.
“We can blame a lot of factors or we can just take a bite out of the sandwich and say, ‘Let’s go,’” Egan said. “We get a chance to compete and get better and we need to do that.”
Seneca East won the junior varsity game as well, 55-30. Kadin Snay led the Tigers with 10 points and Graham Gibbs added nine. Malachi Bayless had a game-high 13 for Bucyrus.
Box score
Bucyrus 11 16 10 12 — 49
Seneca East 25 18 19 16 — 78
Bucyrus (1-3, 1-2 N10): Shots 19-55; 3-pt. shots 5-15 (Nick Middleton 2, Mike Wise, Karson Kimmel, Joe Rager); Free throws 6-10; Rebounds 27 (Nick Middleton 5); Turnovers 17. Scoring: Joe Rager 1 0 3, Karson Kimmel 2 0 5, Mike Wise 10 4 25, Grady Jackson 2 2 6, Jake Hamm 1 0 2, Nick Middleton 2 0 6, Malachi Bayless 1 0 2.
Seneca East (4-2, 2-2 N10): Shots 30-50; 3-pt. shots 8-13 (Turner Bridgford 3, Andrew Kalb 2, Zane Gibbs, Isaac Mason, Jake Forehand); Free throws 10-16; Rebounds 35 (Isaac Mason 12); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Zane Gibbs 2 1 8, Isaac Mason 4 3 12, Andrew Kalb 9 3 23, Jake Forehand 2 2 7, Brock Ferres 2 1 5, Turner Bridgford 5 0 13, Jeremiah Martinez 1 0 2, Pieter Wise 4 0 8.
JV: Seneca East 55-30.