BUCYRUS — When a team is in a rebuild, sometimes the close losses during the transition are as difficult at the larger margins.
Bucyrus is in that situation now. The Redmen pushed then-unbeaten Carey for three quarters on Tuesday and had the lead in the third quarter on a solid Seneca East team.
But a 15-2 run by the Tigers over the last half of the third quarter erased a five-point Redmen lead and Seneca East held on for a 55-50 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“We’re at the halfway point of the season and we’re on the fence,” Bucyrus coach Scott Gifford said. “We’re no longer jayvee players just learning to play varsity. We’re varsity players. We’ve got to make the decision. Are we going to be happy with close games, start patting ourselves on the back, or are we going to be upset that we lost and start playing to win?”
The game was sloppy at the start, with the teams combining for 13 turnovers. But Bucyrus (2-9, 0-7 N10) stayed close to the high-powered Tigers, who came in averaging over 63 points per game.
Seneca East (9-3, 4-2) held a 17-15 lead after one on the strength of Isaac Mason’s 11 points — including three 3-point shots. Five different Redmen scored, led by Kavan Combs’ six points in the frame.
“That’s a credit to Bucyrus,” Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst said. “We knew they were a scrappy team. Looking at them on film, they’re getting better every single game. It scared us as coaches. They came in here looking forward to the second half (of league play) and Bucyrus punches us in the mouth.”
The statistics between the teams remained close. The Tigers did manage to expand their lead to 27-21 on a basket by Aiden Hines with 31 second left in the half. But the Redmen got a pair of free throws and a 3 from Malachi Bayless to trim the deficit to 27-26 at intermission.
The teams featured the third and fourth leading scorers in the N10 in Mason for Seneca East and Bayless for Bucyrus. But both got help from teammates in to keep their respective teams in the game.
“I’m so proud of the kids. They’re dialed in,” Gifford said. “They’re not getting negative, which would be easy to do. They’re still buying into what we’re selling.”
The game was essentially decided in the third quarter. The Redmen grabbed the lead to start the second half and eased out to a 34-29 advantage on a basket by Noah Burke at the 5:05 mark.
But the Tigers went on a 15-2 run over the rest of the period to take the lead back to 44-36.
“We buckled down and luckily we have enough playmakers that made plays enough times and we have enough sets that kind of executed well,” Langhurst said. “We’ve had enough close games that guys really aren’t panicking. We have a lot of varsity experience. They kind of know not to panic.”
“Besides Malachi, nobody else has played varsity,” Gifford said. “So, they’ve never been there before. They’ve got to learn that. Give credit to Seneca East. They’re a seasoned team, so they obviously have some great players. They’ve been there. We haven’t. We’ve got to learn how to withstand those runs and just learn how to deal with the ebbs and flows of the game.”
The Tigers looked to close it out by scoring the first points of the fourth quarter to go up 10, at 46-36. However, the Redmen chipped away and got within five but could not get closer.
Defensively, Bucyrus held Mason to five points in the second half. But Aiden Hines scored 14 of his 20 points in the final two periods to pick up the slack.
“We’re the type of team that can go to sleep a couple of possessions and then explode, hit a couple of 3s, get to the free throw line, get a steal,” Langhurst said. “We’ve just got to find a balance where we’re playing more positive than negative.”
Besides Mason’s 22 and Hines’ 20, only three other Tigers scored. Blake Foos was next with six. Luke Mason had seven rebounds.
Bayless led Bucyrus with 16 points. Burke had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Combs added 10 points.
“It was fun. The last 3-4 games, we’ve been right there, and the guys are starting to taste it,” Gifford said. “It’s a work-in-progress. We’ve got to keep taking baby steps and eventually we’ll see the fruits of our labor.”
“It took us a couple of quarters to match their intensity,” Langhurst said. “We were fortunate enough that Isaac hit some shots early. We had to figure out that we were in a dogfight for four quarters.”
Seneca East also won the junior varsity game, 50-30. Bradley Smith had 14 points to lead the Tigers and Caden Fritz added 13. Jackson Farrar had eight points for Bucyrus.
Box score
Seneca East 17 10 17 11 — 55
Bucyrus 15 11 10 14 — 50
Seneca East (9-3, 4-2 N10): Shots 20-46; 3-pt. shots 7-17 (Isaac Mason 5, Aiden Hines, Lucas Hicks); Free throws 8-14; Rebounds 28 (Luke Mason 7); Turnovers 15. Scoring: Luke Mason 0 4 4, Isaac Mason 8 1 22, Aiden Hines 8 3 20, Blake Foos 3 0 6, Lucas Hicks 1 0 3.
Bucyrus (2-9, 0-7 N10): Shots 21-47; 3-pt. shots 3-11 (Malachi Bayless 2, Blayne Barto); Free throws 5-9; Rebounds 30 (Noah Burke 11); Turnovers 17. Scoring: Kam Lewis 2 0 4, Blayne Barto 1 0 3, Noah Burke 5 0 12, Kavan Combs 5 0 10, Dylan Coppler 1 0 2, Malachi Bayless 6 2 16, Randy Banks 1 1 3.
JV: Seneca East 50-30.