NEW WASHINGTON — In recent games, Wynford and Buckeye Central have been playing well down the stretch.

When the two teams met Friday night, something had to give.

The Bucks shattered a 44-44 tie with 3:26 left by hitting 10 of 13 free throws in the final minutes, to beat the Royals, 57-48.

With the win, the Bucks improved to 5-9 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 7-15 overall. Wynford fell to 4-9 in the conference, 5-15 overall. The Royals travel to Carey tonight in the final regular-season game.

Wynford held a 46-44 lead with 2:58 left in the game on a Grant McGuire shot in the lane. The Royals, however, got just two Dylon Robinson free throws the rest of the way.

“We had some bonehead plays and that hasn’t happened to us for the last five or six games,” Wynford coach Mike Smith said. “I thought we played well down the stretch. They made plays. The first time we made plays. They made plays and we didn’t.

“We just didn’t defend,” Smith added.

Buckeye Central coach Tom Howell said that the players who needed to touch the basketball did so in the game’s final minutes.

“We had some people stepping up a little bit,” Howell said. “We started to share the ball pretty well, we started to find people. We’re really not panicking.

“We go through spurts where we probably play too fast; when we get sped up, we get into trouble,” Howell added. “But it’s getting better. “

After McGuire’s basket gave Wynford the lead late in the game, Damien Dean dropped a free throw and Aiden McDougal scored on a layup, giving the Bucks a 47-46 lead with 2:14 left.

After Stephen Sostakowski canned two free throws, increasing the lead to three, Tyler Sanderson hit six straight free throws to seal the deal.

“I think they had 15 or 16 free throws made,” Smith said. “In reality, that’s the difference.”

“We were sharing the ball and we were getting the ball in the right people’s hands,” Howell said. “These last three to four games, we’ve been playing well. If we continue to do that, we’ll be fine.”

Wynford held a 13-6 lead after one period as Jaron Filliater scored six of his team-high 17 points. Buckeye Central managed to cut the lead to 22-21 at the half as Alex Kanney scored seven points in the second period.

Smith felt that his team played very well in the first half.

“I thought we had them on their heels,” Smith said. “We were in a 1-2-2 zone and switched to man and we forced some misses and I think that forced them to hesitate. I know they figured it out a little in the second half and we lost a couple of guys and they hit shots.”

Sanderson paced the Bucks with 18 points, 10 coming from the free throw line. Kanney finished with 15 points.

McGuire backed up Filliater with 11 points for the Royals.

Wynford won the junior varsity game, 71-46. Ashton Warren scored 16 points for the Royals and Kohan Keith had 13 and Drew Johnson added 11.

Heath Jensen scored 16 points to pace the Bucks. Noah Wilson finished with 13 points.

Box score

Wynford                      13       9      11     15 — 48

Buckeye Central        6     15      15     21 — 57

Wynford (5-15, 4-9 N10): Shots 17-52; 3-pt. shots 3 (Jaron Filliater 2, Grant McGuire); Free throws 11-15; Rebounds 29; Turnovers 9. Scoring: Grant McGuire 5 0 11, Dylon Robinson 1 2 4, James Schiefer 3 2 8, Sam McMillan 3 2 8, Jaron Filliater 5 5 17.

Buckeye Central (7-15, 5-9 N10): Shots 16-45; 3-pt. shots 5 (Alex Kanney 3, Logan Niese, Elliot Geissman); Free throws 20-27; Rebounds 38; Turnovers 11. Scoring: Logan Niese 1 0 3, Stephen Sostakowski 1 2 4, Casey Geissman 1 1 3, Elliot Geissman 1 0 3, Aiden McDougal 2 2 6, Tyler Sanderson 4 10 18, Damian Dean 2 1 5, Alex Kanney 4 4 15.

JV: Wynford 71-46.