ATTICA — Like a bad penny that keeps turning up, poor shooting paid a visit to the Bucyrus Redmen again Saturday night.
The Redmen attempted 60 shots — 15 more than host Seneca East — making only 20, just two more than the Tigers. The result was a 62-48 Tigers’ Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory.
“We got great shots,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “You look at our shot chart. It’s in the paint. There’s got to be a time when we knock those down. We’ve got to get through that brick wall of not shooting the ball well.”
The other obstacle was stopping the N10’s leading scorer, Isaac Mason. The junior is averaging over 30 points per outing, and he did nothing to damage that average with his 31 on the night.
“We’ve got a special player and sometimes that negates everything else that goes on,” Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst said, in reference to the fact that the Tigers were outshot (60-45) and outrebounded (41-33) by the Redmen and had more turnovers (18-15) yet won by double digits.
“That’s an oddity,” Langhurst acknowledged. “We just turned the ball over too much — offensive rebounds. There’s things that can be cleaned up.”
Bucyrus (2-7, 1-6 N10) led just once at 2-0 on an opening layup by Mike Wise. Mason answered with a 3-point shot and the Tigers had the lead the rest of the night.
Seneca East (5-6, 1-5 N10) built an 18-12 lead after one period. A sluggish offensive effort in the second quarter by both teams left the score at 22-16 by halftime.
“We couldn’t get into any type of flow, at times, but I think they had a lot to do with that,” Egan said. “They did a nice job of executing the game plan. We made some changes and we got it down to six (in the third quarter). We turned it over two straight times, and they converted on the back end of that and then it was like quicksand after that. We just couldn’t get going.”
Mason scored nine of his 31 points in the third quarter as the Tigers expanded the lead to 40-31 by period’s end.
“My shots really weren’t falling so I got a lot of help from Coach (Langhurst),” Mason said. “He set up some plays to get me some screens — easy ways to get to the hoop.”
Mason also led the way at the free throw line, hitting 12 of 16. Seneca East was 20 of 26 from the stripe. Bucyrus hit just six of 15, which was the difference in the outcome.
“We have one of the top percentages in the conference,” Langhurst said. “But it’s because our best player gets to the line a lot. It helps when your best player is getting to the line a lot and is shooting the majority of the free throws.”
The Redmen got no closer than seven in the fourth quarter and the Tigers led by as many as 17, 56-39, on a 3 by Alex King with 2:13 left.
Aidan Hines seconded Mason’s 31 with 12 points and King added 11. Mason and Kadin Snay had seven rebounds each.
“Isaac’s a real heady player that really doesn’t force any action,” Egan said. “He’s exceptionally strong with the ball with both hands and he’s a solid player. We tried to keep him as best we could. They had some other kids that shot the ball pretty decent tonight.”
Joe Rager and Grady Jackson had 11 points each to lead Bucyrus. Wise grabbed 11 boards and Eddie Dagher had nine.
“We were like a ship in the ocean, coming off a loss that was kind of deflating (at Wynford last week),” Langhurst said of the Tigers finally getting a league win. “It was one of those things where the waters were getting choppy. But it was a character weekend. We didn’t right the ship, but we navigated away from the choppy waters for now.”
“We just have to make shots when we get the opportunity,” Egan said. “I thought our effort was good. The kids are trying to do all the right things. You can’t ask for anything more, except for our execution to be a little bit better.”
Seneca East won a shootout in the junior varsity game, 63-59, in overtime. Lucas Bordner led the Tigers with 29 points — including a buzzer-beater 3 to send the game to the extra session — and Keeno Ruffing added 12.
Noah Burke had 21 to top Bucyrus, while Blayne Stewart-Barto had 11 and Kavan Combs finished with 10.
Box score
Bucyrus 12 4 15 17 — 48
Seneca East 18 4 18 22 — 62
Bucyrus (2-7, 1-6 N10): Shots 20-60; 3-pt. shots 2-16 (Malachi Bayless, Joe Rager); Free throws 6-15; Rebounds 41 (Mike Wise 11, Eddie Dagher 9); Turnovers 15. Scoring: Eddie Dagher 2 1 5, Joe Rager 4 2 11, Mike Wise 4 0 8, Grady Jackson 4 3 11, Jake Hamm 3 0 6, Malachi Bayless 3 0 7.
Seneca East (5-6, 1-5 N10): Shots 18-45; 3-pt. shots 6-17 (Alex King 3, Isaac Mason, Aidan Hines, Blake Foos); Free throws 20-26; Rebounds 33 (Kadin Snay 7, Isaac Mason 7); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Graham Gibbs 0 1 1, Alex King 3-2 11, Isaac Mason 9 12 31, Aidan Hines 3 5 12, Kadin Snay 1 0 2, Blake Foos 1 0 3, Lucas Hicks 1 0 2.
JV: Seneca East 63-59 (OT).