BUCYRUS (Crawford County Now) — After missing on five previous opportunities for wins, the Bucyrus Redmen finally broke through.

The Redmen used a 20-point fourth quarter to pull away from stubborn Buckeye Central and came away with a 56-44 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium on Phil A. Joseph Court.

The win avenged a 56-48 loss at Buckeye Central last Friday. It was a load off the shoulders of Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis’ shoulders.

“We’re just proud of them for staying bought in,” Hargis said of his team’s weathering the losing streak. “Nobody jumped off the ship. It told us how mentally tough the kids are. We need to get a little physically tougher.”

The spread was never more than eight points all the way to the middle of the fourth quarter. The Bucks’ Matthew Heefner’s stick back tied the game at 38-38 with 5:35 left.

That was the line of demarcation at which Bucyrus (1-12, 1-7) grabbed the momentum.

Redmen sophomore Lincoln Blizzard answered with a 3-point shot from the left corner to give his team the lead for good. Buckeye Central (5-7, 2-6) turned the ball over on the inbound pass and Blizzard hit another 3.

The Bucks then turned it over again on a backcourt violation. Demaris Munn-Page was fouled and hit one of two free throws to cap a 7-0 for a 45-38 lead.

“We got it tied at 38,” Buckeye Central coach Chris Moyer said. “We turn it over on an inbounds. We turn it over on an over and back. And Lincoln knocks down two big shots. When you’re not shooting it well and we’re fighting, you cannot make those types of mistakes.”

“Lincoln had some big moments for a sophomore,” Hargis said. “I don’t know how many 3s he missed — maybe eight or nine — and we told him at halftime to keep shooting them. He missed all the ones in the third. In between quarters I said, ‘Hey, you’re going to hit them.’”

Buckeye Central was hobbled early with foul trouble. Leading scorer Jack Phillips and post Jeremiah Fishpaw picked up two fouls each in the first quarter and Phillips got his third just before halftime.

The Redmen took advantage, particularly Munn-Page, who scored 11 of his game-high 16 points in the first half.

“A lot of that (fouling) is because we didn’t do a very good job on Demaris,” Moyer said. “We were letting him get downhill, we were letting him get in the paint. We were late sliding over and reaching. That’s the problems he causes when he’s getting into the paint.”

While the Bucks had built a 16-12 lead after the first quarter, the Redmen had a 16-6 advantage in the second period to take a 28-22 lead at intermission.

“I thought Demar played under control for the first time all year,” Hargis said. “That’s what we’ve been preaching. Don’t over penetrate. He’s a great facilitator; he’s a good finisher. Take what the defense gives you.”

Bucyrus pushed its lead to 34-26 on a pair of free throws from Munn-Page at 4:10 of the third, but BC trimmed the deficit back to 36-32 by period’s end.

While the Bucks never regained the lead, they did manage to tie it in the fourth.

After pushing the lead to 51-40 on a basket by freshman Da’Shawn Cosey, the Redmen made just enough free throws — five of 10 — to secure the win.

“Ever since we lost to them the last time, we’ve been going hard at practice, because we knew we could beat them,” Munn-Page said. “We just didn’t have the mindset (the first game). This game, we came at it. We went all out for it. We just wanted to win. Now we’ve got to keep it going.”

Caydin Jarvis led BC with 13 points. Hunter Caudill and Fishpaw had eight points each and Phillips grabbed eight rebounds.

“We shoot it abysmal against the zone,” Moyer said. “We were prepared for the zone. We got a ton of looks. We missed 10 shots in the paint. We were three of 21 from three, mostly wide-open looks. The old adage is ‘Sometimes you just shoot it bad’ and I look at it that way.”

Georgie Floyd seconded Munn-Page’s 16 points with 15 for the Redmen. Dylan Coppler finished with 10 and Cosey added seven. Munn-Page had 10 rebounds.

“They were jumping the ball screens,” Hargis said of the Bucks’ defense. “I thought Georgie and Dylan did a good job of not fully rolling — slipped the screens, stayed put, catch it, throw opposite.”

“When you’re playing a team that hasn’t won a game, the kids worked a lot and they compete,” Moyer said. “Their kids are playing hard. They were finding ways to not win games. They did a good job here tonight. They outplayed us and they deserved to win.”

“It’s not easy to go 0-12,” Hargis said. “We had some tight ones. This is the first game we put four quarters together. If we play four quarters, we can play with the majority of the teams on our schedule.

“We watched film right before the game,” Hargis added. “They made the proper adjustments in the 32 (3-2 zone). A win’s a win. We’re on to Seneca East on Saturday.”

Bucyrus swept the evening with a 42-19 win in the junior varsity game. Carter Bierce led the Redmen with 11 points and Da’Shawn Cosey chipped in with nine. Isaiah Kaiser led the Bucks with 11.

Box score

Buckeye Central     16         6      10     12 — 44

Bucyrus                     12       16        8     20 — 56

Stats

Buckeye Central (5-7, 2-6): Shots 17-46; 3-pt. shots 3-21 (Hunter Caudill, Jeremiah Fishpaw, Jack Phillips); Free throws 7-9; Rebounds 28 (Jack Phillips 8); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Hunter Caudill 4 0 9, Caydin Jarvis 5 3 13, Jeremiah Fishpaw 4 0 9, Jack Phillips 2 3 8, Matthew Heefner 2 1 5.

Bucyrus (1-12, 1-7 N10): Shots 20-49; 3-pt. shots 8-21 (Georgie Floyd 2, Lincoln Blizzard 2); Free throws 12-19; Rebounds 33 (Demaris Munn-Page 10); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Demarius Munn-Page 6 4 16, Lincoln Blizzard 2 0 6, Georgie Floyd 4 5 15, Dylan Coppler 5 0 10, Carson Witten 0 2 2, Da’Shawn Cosey 3 1 7.

JV: Bucyrus 42-19.