NORTH ROBINSON — Are the Bucyrus Lady Redmen the most improved team in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference?

Certainly, Colonel Crawford might think so.

Crawford jumped out to a 16-2 lead after the first period and had to use a stout, aggressive defense to down Bucyrus, 39-27, Tuesday night.

With the win, the Eagles improved to 1-1 in the Northern 10, 4-1 overall. Bucyrus fell to 0-2 in the conference, 1-3 overall.

But the win didn’t come easy for the Eagles, who had to step up defensively.

“We were good in spots defensively,” Colonel Crawford coach Kyle Fenner said. “We did have some good gap help to start the game.”

Crawford had to be good defensively. After the first period, when the Eagles hit seven of 16 shots, they were just seven of 32 the rest of the way.

Fenner said that her team will get better offensively with experience.

“We have to get into the gym,” Fenner said. “We have to work at it. You have to be a shooter. You can’t just do one facet of the game. You have to work on attacking the glass, getting your jump shot.

“That just comes with practice,” she added. “It comes with repetition. I don’t know what we were from the floor. We weren’t very good shooting the ball. They went into that 2-3 zone and we just weren’t very good against that 2-3.”

The Crawford defense was the dominant aspect on the floor. The Eagles held the Bucyrus offense to just 28 shots for the game. Bucyrus made eight, and never cut the lead inside 10 points after the first period.

Still, the Lady Red outscored Crawford, 25-23, over the final three periods.

“The first quarter was our downfall,” Bucyrus coach Brian Seybert said. “I probably should have gotten out of the press sooner. They broke it pretty easy and got some easy layups and runouts on us. That’s the learning side of the game for me, I guess.”

Seybert said that going into that 2-3 zone helped keep his team in the game.

“We have to get better at taking care of our responsibilities in that, but it slowed them down a little bit and kept us alive in the game,” Seybert said. “If we can put the ball in the hole, we’ll get better turnouts, I hope.”

Crawford’s Kaylyn Risner paced the Eagles with 14 points and Mallory Plesac added six.

Fenner felt that the first period was the best for her team offensively.

“That was pretty good offensively (in the first period) and then, for some reason, we just stopped playing,” Fenner said.

“We can still attack the zone. We just have to get better at that. Bucyrus plays hard. They do.”

Madalyn Kimmel scored a team-high 10 points to lead the Lady Red, while Marissa Middleton came off the bench and scored eight points.

“We went to a motion offense and screened off it and cutting and attacking the basket because we weren’t doing that early on,” Seybert said. “Once we decided to do that, we were getting some calls and some baskets and getting some matchups we liked.”

Colonel Crawford won the junior varsity game, 40-17. Cecelia Chase led the Eagles with 12 points. Middleton led Bucyrus with nine points.

Box score

Bucyrus                       2        6      11        8 — 27

Colonel Crawford   16        9      11        3 — 39

Bucyrus (1-3, 0-2 N10): Shots 10-28; 3-pt. shots 2 (Emma Tyrrell, Maddie Kimmel); Free throws 5-12; Rebounds 24; Turnovers 23. Scoring: Addison Ricker 1 0 2, Maddie Kimmel 3 3 10, Kendra Blizzard 1 0 2, Emma Tyrrell 1 0 3, Adacyn Rister 0 2 2, Marissa Middleton 4 0 8.

Colonel Crawford (4-1, 1-1 N10): Shots 14-48; 3-pt. shots 1 (Kaylyn Risner); Free throws 10-16; Rebounds 28; Turnovers 8. Scoring: Mallory Plesac 1 4 6, Hailey Slagle 1 1 3, Allison Weithman 2 0 4, Addison Kemery 1 2 4, Corin Feik 2 0 4, Kaylyn Risner 5 3 14, Lynae McKibben 2 0 4.

JV: Colonel Crawford 40-17.