BUCYRUS — For several games, the Bucyrus Lady Redmen have struggled to score consistently.
So, coach Brian Seybert decided to emphasize defense until the offense recovered. It worked well against a quality opponent, Carey, for almost three quarters.
The Lady Red used a stingy zone defense to hold the Blue Devils to 18 points in the first half and took a 23-18 lead into the break. But Carey roared back with 30 second-half points to overtake Bucyrus, 48-33, in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“We went back to what we’re comfortable in, a 2-3 zone,” Seybert said. “We were giving up too many points in the paint the last few games, so I figured, let’s go back to what we know, what we do pretty decent at, and that’s a 2-3 zone.”
The plan worked to near perfection in the first half, limiting the Blue Devils to eight of 26 from the field. It could have been a bigger lead except for a momentum-changing series in the last five seconds of the second quarter.
Bucyrus (3-6, 0-5 N10) inbounded near mid-court and had what appeared to be a break-away layup. But the Lady Red were whistled for a foul away from the ball. Carey (5-2, 3-2) inbounded and Julia Broadman drilled a 3-point shot at the buzzer.
“That gave us a little bit of momentum going into the half, a little bit of confidence that we can do this,” Carey coach Keith O’Flaherty said. “It was nice having that.”
“The girls came out fired up, first quarter, first half, (we) got what we wanted (offensively),” Seybert said. “I got a little greedy there at the end of the first half and it backfired on me.”
The Blue Devils seized the momentum by scoring the first five points of the second half to tie the game at 23-23. But the Bucyrus zone remained steady through most of the third quarter and the Redmen took their last lead of the game, 27-25, on a basket by Maddie Kimmel with 2:42 left in the frame.
That lead held up until the Blue Devils tied it at 27-27 with 1:31 left in the third on a Lexi Plott 2-pointer, which started a 10-2 run over the last minute-and-a-half that gave Carey a 35-29 advantage by period’s end.
“When they were back in that zone, offensively we weren’t executing like I would like us to do,” O’Flaherty said. “We weren’t moving the ball; we weren’t swinging it very good.
“Once we got into that zone and scored some points in the second half and drew them out into the man-to-man where they had to play, it worked well for us.”
After a respite in the first half, shooting woes returned for the Redmen as the hosts hit just four of 19 shots in the second half. Carey went 11 of 18 in the second half, including four of six from the field and five of seven from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to pull away.
Kimmel led Bucyrus with 11 points, and Addison Kemery added six. Ady Rister had six rebounds.
“We had our lull. They picked up the pressure on us and I knew that’s exactly what they’ do,” Seybert said. “And we didn’t handle it very well. We’ve got to get better at that and that’s on me.”
Ady Stewart topped the Blue Devils with a game-high 14 points — 11 in the second half — and Brodman finished with 11. Rylee Row and Brodman had six boards each.
“It took us a half to get our motor running,” O’Flaherty said. “Bucyrus played an awesome first half. They had us back on our heels. We just went in, made a few adjustments at halftime, and luckily came out of here with a win.”
“They’re a very good team,” Seybert said of the Blue Devils. “They’re all athletes, they’ve got balanced scoring, they play hard for keeps.
“I told the girls we’ve got to get more physical, and it showed tonight,” he added. “They didn’t back down. They played physical. Our league is a physical league and we’ve got to be able to handle it.”
Box score
Carey 8 10 17 13 — 48
Bucyrus 14 9 6 4 — 33
Carey (5-2, 3-2 N10): Shots 19-44; 3-pt. shots 3-14 (Ady Stewart 2, Julia Brodman); Free throws 7-9; Rebounds 31 (Rylee Row 6, Julia Brodman 6); Turnovers 19. Scoring: Rylee Row 3 0 6, Julia Brodman 4 2 11, Lexi Plott 3 3 9, Riley Yost 3 0 6, Ady Stewart 5 2 14, Kynlee Phillips 1 0 2.
Bucyrus (3-6, 0-5 N10): Shots 13-42; 3-pt. shots 3-8 (Addison Kemery 2, Brook Dennison); Free throws 4-9; Rebounds 26 (Ady Rister 6, Maddie Kimmel 5); Turnovers 21. Scoring: Addison Ricker 1 1 3, Maddie Kimmel 5 1 11, Kendra Blizzard 1 0 2, Brook Dennison 1 2 5, Ady Rister 2 0 4, Addison Kemery 2 0 6, Marissa Middleton 1 0 2.