HOLMES TOWNSHIP — For 11 games, Buckeye Central went 10-1 playing without three-time All-Ohioan, Claudia Pifher, who suffered a broken wrist before the season began.
The Buckettes got Pifher back Friday night and the team never missed a beat.
In more than 28 minutes of play, Pifher scored 19 points, added two rebounds, two steals and an assist. They also got 15 points from the Northern 10 Athletic Conference’s leading scorer, Emily Siesel, and Kate Siesel added 13 coming off the bench as the Buckettes dropped Wynford, 59-29.
With the win, the state’s second-ranked Division IV team improved to 7-0 in the N10, 11-1 overall. Wynford fell to 4-3 in the conference, 7-4 overall.
“She went right where she left off last year, six of nine from the floor in the first half, I don’t know what she was in the second half, but she scored 19 points and was very efficient. It was good to have her back,” Buckeye Central coach Abram Kaple said.
Kaple said that, despite not having played, he wasn’t surprised with her performance.
“She was kinda practicing a little bit with the cast on the last two weeks and she shot the ball really well,” Kaple said. “She scored what she scored for a reason. She really hasn’t missed any time in the gym, just not being able to go live. So that doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Pifher said that she was cleared to play right before the Buckettes faced undefeated Shelby on Jan. 4, but she still wasn’t ready to step on the floor.
“It was obviously stiff and sore that day, so I couldn’t even move it, so I wasn’t ready for that game,” Pifher said.
The BC guard said that she wasn’t nervous coming in to face a very good Wynford team.
“I was more excited than nervous,” Pifher said. “Just being out 11 games, it’s just a different point of view. I’ve never been out for games, so it’s just a different perspective for me, so I’m glad to be back.”
Wynford coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon said she was thrilled that Pifher was back.
“When you do compete, you want to play teams at their full power,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “You don’t want to say, we competed because they didn’t have their All-Ohioan. I’m thrilled for her that she’s back.”
After Wynford’s Maddie Coffman opened the game with a 3-point shot, Emily Siesel got two free throws before Pifher got her first points of the season with a follow, giving BC a 4-3 lead.
The Buckettes never looked back.
“I’ve been shooting in practice, just because I haven’t been able to do much contact, so that is a part of my game that I think has improved since my injury,” Pifher said.
“My teammates do a great job of finding me in open areas and putting me in good places to score, so they have confidence in me, so I have confidence in myself,” she added.
From that point, the Buckettes went on a 21-0 run and led 21-3 after one period.
“Our defensive intensity worked really well in the beginning,” Pifher said. “We were just up in their grill, getting steals, getting out in transition. We were just making shots, behind the 3-point line, we were hitting them, so those things combined helped us.”
Kaple felt that adding Pifher to a team that was already moving on all cylinders will only help his team.
“Emily has had a sensational first half of the season and we look for that to continue,” Kaple said. “We feel that is a tough matchup for a lot of teams, having two scorers to try and stop, two very capable All-Ohio guards that can play at the next level.
“They are going to require a lot of attention,” he added. “It’s going to free up a lot of opportunities for them. And Kate Siesel, coming off the bench, it’s going to be a slightly adjusted role for her. She has the ability to score in a hurry and that’s kinda why we like her in that spot, and we have other capable shooters as well. The attention that those two draw is only going to benefit every other player on the team.”
Taylor-Sheldon also said that, with Pifher’s return, the Buckettes will be even more difficult to defend.
“They’re just hard match-ups and we didn’t play as well as we needed to to compete,” she said.
Wynford’s Averi McMillan led the Royals with 10 points and Paige Smith came off the bench to score six points and grab seven rebounds.
“We knew that the two things we had to do, the biggest thing was to keep our composure and take care of the basketball and we didn’t,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “That’s something you cannot prepare for in one day of practice.
“We did things in stretches well, especially in the half court. But they were determined not to make it a half-court game but a full-court game,” she added. “We were not disciplined enough to create that pressure to be a full-court game. We were going to try and maintain it the best we could, and we didn’t do a very good job of that.”
While Kaple was happy with his team’s defensive effort, he thought his team made some mistakes.
“We fouled too much and there was no flow,” Kaple said. “We don’t do a great job of moving our feet at times. So, it’s something we’ll focus on and get better at and we’ll kinda go from there.”
Taylor-Sheldon felt that her team has played well in the first half of the season and will be looking to continue the momentum in the second half.
“This is the finish of the first half of the season, and we feel like we have a lot of momentum despite this game, so we’re excited to build on some of the things we did well and improve upon some of the mistakes we made today,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “Some we’ll be able to improve upon, some we may not be able to improve upon, those are summertime and fall and springtime and off time skills.”
Box score
Buckeye Central 21 17 17 4 — 59
Wynford 3 9 10 7 — 29
Buckeye Central (11-1, 7-0 N10): Shots 21-38; 3-pt. shots 8-17 (Kate Siesel 3, Emily Siesel 2, Claudia Pifher 2, Kennedy Depinet); Free throws 9-13; Rebounds 18 (Julia Evak 4); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Emily Siesel 4 5 15, Kate Siesel 5 0 13, Claudia Pifher 8 1 19, Julia Evak 1 0 2, Kennedy Deppen 1 2 5, Ryley Kantzer 1 1 3, Sydney Wurm 1 0 2.
Wynford (7-4, 4-3 N10): Shots 8-27; 3-pt. 2-7 (Maddie Coffman, Zoe Whitmeyer); Rebounds 24; Turnovers 19. Scoring: Maddie Coffman 1 0 3, Zoe Whitmeyer 1 0 3, Paige Smith 1 4 6, Averi McMillan 2 6 10, Katie Wagner 3 1 7.
JV: Buckeye Central 36-15.