BUCYRUS — With four seniors total, both Buckeye Central and Bucyrus had a host of girls seeing their first league action on Tuesday night.
The Buckettes jumped out to an early lead but had to hold off a resilient Lady Red effort for a 44-42 victory in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference opener on the Phil A. Joseph Court inside Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
The visitors took a 14-7 lead after one quarter as senior Grace Collene netted six of her 14 points. Fellow senior Nevaeh Metzger added 14 of her own, including a floater from six feet as the period ended.
“I saw Bucyrus last Friday. They’re dangerous. They’ve got some nice players. What makes them dangerous is you’ve got a bunch of kids that can shoot it, and they got the green light to shoot the three and that can be dangerous,” Buckeye Central head coach Phil Loy said.
The Lady Red fired up 23 from beyond the arc, hitting on seven. Marissa Middleton and Savannah Clark had two apiece.
“We’ve got to make sure we get out on shooters. We also need to do a much better job taking care of the basketball,” Loy said. “We were sloppy. I’d like to think that’s a first game thing. We also have to do a better job rebounding.”
The Buckettes, who took a 23-21 lead at intermission, committed 12 turnovers to nine for Bucyrus.
Middleton’s 18 points and 5 boards paced the Lady Red. A freshman, Clark added 10 points and two rebounds.
Collene’s corner three at the buzzer tied the game at 32 after a back-and-forth third quarter. Jenna Cianflone hit a trey to put BC on top 35-32 to start the final quarter.
But Collene and Metzger answered the call, along with a basket from Ella Collene. Rowland hit a three to make it 44-40 with 1:15 remaining.
“We got down early and got a little lazy, I thought. But we fought back and took the lead at one point,” Bucyrus head coach Brian Seybert said.
“In the third quarter we gave up two straight easy catch, rip and drive lay-ups and we were down seven (39-32). At that point I wasn’t quite sure we were going to fight back. But the word of the night was determination. Be determined to try to do whatever it takes to win this game. I thought we gave
ourselves an opportunity at the end.”
The Lady Red (0-3, 0-1) forced a BC turnover and got a lay-up from Middleton to cut it to 44-42 with six seconds left.
“We got another shot after a steal and had a chance to win in it. I applaud the girls for their determination,” Seybert said.
But Buckeye Central (1-0, 1-0) held on for the win in its initial outing of the season.
“It’s tough for us to make shots here. We made some key shots at key times when it was getting tight. But we didn’t finish that game the last couple of minutes the way we want to,” Loy said.
Referring to his two seniors, Loy said, “this is their time to shine. They probably didn’t play as well as they wanted to tonight, but not bad for a first game.”
Plenty of new faces are on the Buckeye Central roster.
“We return five players who know what to expect. Three of them started last year and the other two played a lot,” Loy said. “Our bench has to grow up fast. None of them have seen a varsity minute or a high school minute ever.”
The Buckettes have four freshmen and a sophomore. Overall, the team has more depth than a year ago.
“We’ve got a good freshman and sophomore class. They decided to come out and I’m glad they did. They will contribute a lot in the future. It’s nice to build and get numbers and we’ll continue to do that,” Loy said.
“This is a good first test for them to grow up and take that next step. A win is a win.”
Macy Deppen had 10 rebounds, Aleyse Siefert and Grace Collene six each. Metzger added four steals.
Buckeye Central visits Willard on Saturday and then another N10 rival at Wynford next Tuesday.
Bucyrus isn’t shy about shooting from deep on the court.
“We’ve fired up 57 threes already,” Seybert said. “They’re all capable of making any of the shots they take.”
Blending the two veterans with a crop of anxious youngsters is the task for Bucyrus.
“Marissa stepped up as a senior, played hard, defended Metzger and she still had gas in the tank. That’s how she’s got to play,” Seybert noted.
“Savannah stepped up tonight too and is able to drive and get to the rim and good rebounding. She needs to step it up a little on defense.”
Rowland added four rebounds and Reese Garvin three.
The Lady Red host Seneca East Tuesday.
“We’ve got to work on our defensive stops. Our other girls have gathered more varsity time in these three games than they got all of last year combined,” Seybert said.
“They’ve all got a little different skill set and they’ll transform themselves between now and the end of the year. But we’re going to compete.”
Box score
Buckeye Central 14 9 9 12 — 44
Bucyrus 7 14 11 10 — 42
Buckeye Central (1-0, 1-0 N10): Shots 18-34; 3-pt. shots 4-10 (Nevaeh Metzger 2, Grace Collene, Jenna Cianflone); Free throws 4-10; Rebounds 31 (Macy Deppen 10); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Jenna Cianflone 1 0 3, Aleyse Siefert 3 2 8, Grace Collene 6 1 14, Harper Kantzer 0 1 1, Nevaeh Metzger 6 0 14, Ella Collene 1 0 2, Macy Deppen 1 0 2.
Bucyrus (0-3, 0-1 N10): Shots 14-44; 3-pt. shots 7-24 (Savannah Clark 2, Marissa Middleton 2, Reese Garvin, Malina Rowland, Karlee Shull); Free throws 7-9; Rebounds 16 (Marissa Middleton 5); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Karlee Shull 1 0 3, Reese Garvin 2 1 6, Marissa Middleton 6 4 18, Malina Rowland 2 0 5, Savannah Clark 3 2 10.
JV: Buckeye Central 32-15.