NORTH ROBINSON — For a half, the Buckeye Central Buckettes played nearly flawless basketball. It was more than enough Tuesday night.
The state’s second-ranked Division IV team hit 12 of 16 shots in the first two periods for 75 percent and shut out Colonel Crawford in the second period, en route to a 65-35 win.
With the win, the Buckettes improved to 8-0 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 12-1 overall, while the Eagles fell to 1-7 in the conference, 5-8 overall.
Guard Claudia Pifher, in her second game back from a broken wrist, scored 23 points, and point guard Emily Siesel had a monster game with 12 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, five steals, and one block in the win.
BC coach Abram Kaple felt that his All-Ohioans played well but added that his team can get better in some areas.
“Emily’s phenomenal, she guarded Risner the entire game, getting bullied on the other end,” Kaple said. “She’s having a great season thus far and we look for that to continue.
“Obviously, Claudia is very skilled offensively and can really score the basketball in a hurry,” Kaple added. “It’s still going to take a couple of games for us to mesh and kinda figure out rotations and what we’re doing on the floor. From behind the scenes, we’re not doing things like we need to be. We’ll have an opportunity to clean those things up, and, hopefully, we’ll be playing our best basketball in late February and early March.”
Kaple was also happy with junior guard Sydney Wurm, who knocked down 10 points.
“We’ve talked to (Wurm) about being more aggressive offensively and having her hands ready to shoot,” Kaple said. “A couple of times she was ready on the catch and that makes a big difference.”
The Buckettes came out firing in the first period, hitting eight of 10 shots and four 3-point shots. Pifher scored 14 in the period as BC held a 27-11 lead after one.
At the break, the Buckettes held a 41-11 lead, as the BC defense held Crawford to zero-for-15 shooting in the period.
“We came out and we shot the ball really well,” Kaple said. “I think the kids really like shooting in this gym. I know I always did when I was a player. And obviously, there’s been a lot of successful kids that have come through here, so I feel it’s kind of a shooters’ gym, a little old school, a little smaller floor, so we came out and shot the ball well.
“That’s kinda what our message was, we wanted to get out to a fast start,” he added. “I thought we took our foot off the gas a little too much in the second half. But it is what it is.”
Colonel Crawford coach Kyle Fenner said that defending the Buckettes is a difficult challenge.
“We’re trying to switch screens, we’re trying to keep a hand in their faces, trying to keep them in front of us,” Fenner said. “But when you have kids that can score in multiple ways, it’s tough to defend.
“We were pretty physical, I thought.”
In the second half, the Eagles did a much better job of defending the Buckettes as BC hit seven of 17 shots in the second half.
Conversely, Crawford, which hit three of 27 shots in the first half, made 10 of 23 shots from the floor in the second half.
“Give credit to Crawford, they’re physical when guarding the basketball, and they know that our M.O. is trying to get to the rim,” Kaple said. “We struggled at times being strong with the basketball, missed some layups, some easy ones.
“But give credit to them. They defended and made things difficult for us. So, they made adjustments at halftime.”
Kaple said that Crawford’s ability to defend has been the hallmark of the team for a long time.
“This is what they kind of hang their hats on and they have for all four years that I’ve coached against Coach Fenner,” Kaple said. “Our goal was to try to get out and run and provide pressure in the first half and not make it a half-court game. We wanted to score more points, but the higher we can get the scoreboard that benefitted us. That’s kinda what we sought to do, and we did a good job in the first half.”
Senior Kaylyn Risner scored 10 of her team-high 17 points in the second half. Mallory Plesac backed up Risner with nine for the game.
“We played better in the second half,” Fenner said. “We continued to compete, and we made some goals for ourselves. I love my kids.
“We have to play hard,” she added. “Our kids have played hard all year long and we’re going to continue to play hard. We did that and have games in the second half of the season that we think we can win. We just have to try and get better for the rest of the year.”
Colonel Crawford won the junior varsity game, 34-23. Ayla McKibben led the Eagles with 10 points. Navaeh Metzger paced the Buckettes with 14.
Box score
Buckeye Central 27 14 9 15 — 65
Colonel Crawford 11 0 10 14 — 35
Buckeye Central (12-1, 8-0 N10): Shots 19-33; 3-pt. shots 7-15 (Claudia Pifher 3, Sydney Wurm 2, Kate Siesel 2); Free throws 20-24; Rebounds 23 (Emily Siesel 8); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Emily Siesel 3 6 12, Kate Siesel 2 1 7, Claudia Pifher 6 8 23, Kennedy Deppen 1 0 2, Ella Evak 1 0 2, Navaeh Metzger 1 0 2, Ryley Kantzer 2 3 7, Sydney Wurm 3 2 10.
Colonel Crawford (5-8, 1-7 N10): Shots 13-50; 3-pt. shots 4-12 (Kaylyn Risner 3, Allison Weithman); Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 29; Turnovers 19. Scoring: Mallory Plesac 4 1 9, Allison Weithman 1 0 3, Niyah Shipman 1 0 2, Kaylyn Risner 5 4 17, Lynae McKibben 1 0 2, Cecelia Chase 1 0 2.
JV: Colonel Crawford 34-23.