GALION — Carson Early is aware of the work still ahead of him in rebuilding the Galion Lady Tigers’ basketball program.
For a couple of years, Bucyrus was in a similar position and the Lady Red are just now beginning to see the turnaround. Early may want to borrow the blueprint.
Bucyrus raced out to a 15-0 first-quarter lead and used a stifling defense to help force the young Tigers into 38 turnovers. The Redmen went on to overwhelm Galion, 47-15, in a non-league game.
“It was a big win. We did what we needed to do here tonight,” Bucyrus coach Brian Seybert said. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well in the first half. The second half, we came out and settled down a little bit, made some layups, made some buckets we were missing in the first half.”
What Bucyrus (7-12) lacked in accuracy was made up in volume. After going out to the 15-point lead in the first quarter, the Lady Red hit just one of 17 shots in the second quarter. But in the first half alone, Bucyrus attempted 36 shots to just 15 for the Tigers.
This was in part due the Lady Red defense and in part due to Galion’s hesitancy to shoot and lack of success when the Tigers did shoot— hitting only two of 15 attempts.
“That’s just one thing we’ve been lacking this year is shots dropping and our taking shots,” Early said. “I keep after them and we do a lot of shooting in practices. It goes with the experience. All the freshmen are hesitant to shoot. They don’t want to overstep.”
Kendra Blizzard carried the offense in the first half for Bucyrus, scoring seven of her 10 points. Despite poor shooting, the Redmen defense — Galion (1-17) didn’t score it’s first point until the 6-minute mark of the second period on a 3-point shot by Dezi Lester — maintained the margin at 20-5 at halftime.
The Tigers had piled up 27 turnovers in the first half, limiting their offensive opportunities.
“The main goal coming in was apply the pressure, make them make pressure decisions, and see what happens,” Seybert said. “It created quite a few turnovers, we got quite a few steals out of it which helped us get layups that were uncontested.”
“We know we’re going to get pressed and it’s something we’ve been working on,” Early said. “We know how to break a press and we see signs of it when we do break it. And then we revert back to the old ways.”
Brook Dennison was at the center of the pressure for the Lady Red, grabbing 11 steals on the night.
“That’s what she’s good at,” Seybert said of Dennison. “She’s very quick, she can jump, she can read passing lanes and anticipate. She was struggling shooting the ball up until about the (third) quarter. That’s what we need her to do right there, is create the turnovers and get out and run.”
Bucyrus used an 18-3 third quarter to erase any doubt about the outcome, increasing the advantage to 38-8 after three. Dennison scored seven of her game-high 15 points in the frame.
Addy Rister scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds to go with Dennison’s 15 points and Blizzard’s 10 for the Lady Red.
Sarah Peoples had four points for the Tigers, while Cameron Eckert had 10 rebounds and Audrey Glew pulled down nine boards.
“It’s just trying to get them (to understand), ‘Hey, it’s working,’” Early said. “The shot’s not dropping but we’ve got to continue to break the press and also get the shots to drop. We’ll get there.”
Galion did manage to garner 42 rebounds. Unfortunately, they couldn’t capitalize, hitting just four of 33 shots along with the 38 turnovers.
Bucyrus also shot a low percentage, hitting 18 of 67 shots. But coach never slowed the offense.
“Even if we missed shots, we were getting some offensive rebounds,” Seybert said. “The minute you stop shooting, you don’t even have a chance to make them. We told them to keep shooting, and if you kick it out, the shots we were taking were open. Eventually they have to start falling, right? They eventually started falling.”
“One of the things I told the girls at the beginning, ‘It’s going to be a rough road,’” Early said. “But we just have to take small victories and the big victories will come. We’ll turn this program around.”
Bucyrus also won the junior varsity game, 35-25. Kimmy Burling and Bell Bruss had eight points each for the Lady Red. Miley Harsh had a game-high 10 points for the Tigers.
Box score
Bucyrus 15 5 18 9 — 47
Carey 0 5 3 7 — 15
Bucyrus (7-12): Shots 18-67; 3-pt. shots 3-18 (Brook Dennison 2, Kendra Blizzard); Free throws 8-19; Rebounds 40 (Addy Rister 8); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Addison Ricker 1 0 2, Kendra Blizzard 4 1 10, Brook Dennison 4 5 15, Addy Rister 4 1 9, Addison Kemery 3 1 7, Marissa Middleton 2 0 4.
Galion (1-17): Shots 4-33; 3-pt. shots 2-14 (Dezi Lester, Miley Harsh); Free throws 5-9; Rebounds 42 (Cameron Eckert 10, Audrey Glew 9); Turnovers 38. Scoring: Cameron Eckert 1 1 3, Dezi Lester 1 0 3, Audrey Glew 0 2 2, Sarah Peoples 1 2 4, Miley Harsh 1 0 3.
JV: Bucyrus 35-25.