By Dan Messerschmidt

ONTARIO — Bucyrus shot poorly in the first half but trailed Ontario by just four at halftime.

The erratic shooting continued in the second half for the Lady Red and the Lady Warriors made them pay.

Bucyrus shot just 24 percent from the field and 50 percent from the line for the game. Ontario took advantage, outscoring the Lady Red, 29-14 in the final two periods to pull away to a 49-30 non-league victory at the O-rena.

“I tried subbing to find someone who was on a roll (shooting),” Bucyrus coach Taylor Whitaker said. “Nobody was shooting well tonight.”

The Warriors’ strategy was to confuse a potent Bucyrus (11-10) offense that came in averaging 49 points per game.

“That was part of our game plan,” Ontario coach Mitchell Willeke said. “We wanted to change it up, mix in some zone and disrupt their flow.”

Despite that, the Lady Red were able to hang around in the first half. Izzy Burling scored six of her eight points in the second quarter as Bucyrus only trailed 20-16 at intermission.

“We’re not going to win games when we can’t make shots, have 20-plus turnovers and don’t box out,” Whitaker said. “Two of those three we can control.”

The Lady Red committed 23 turnovers and allowed 17 offensive rebounds to Ontario (13-8) and, to the coach’s point, they were unable overcome that while shooting so poorly.

The Warriors created separation in the third quarter by holding Bucyrus to three points on one of 11 shooting. Ontario extended the lead to 30-19 by period’s end.

“Our kids are pretty long, and they did a good job of executing the defensive game plan,” Willeke said. “We got some deflections, we got some steals and the shots started falling.”

The Warriors’ offense really got rolling in the fourth quarter. Nashail Shelby, who fought through early foul trouble, scored 10 of her game-high 19 points in the final eight minutes as Ontario cruised to victory.

“Give them credit,” Whitaker said of the Warriors. “They switched up defensively a lot. That can throw a team off.”

Madeline Collins scored 11 points to second Shelby’s 19 for the Warriors. Freshman Carleigh Pearson added eight points and Collins grabbed 16 rebounds.

Shaina Orewiler led Bucyrus with 10 points, Burling finished with eight and Ni’Georia Floyd added seven. Brooklyn Spears had eight rebounds.

“We had some kids come off the bench and play well,” Willeke said. “We started getting up and down a little bit.”

“I told the girls this is a game we can learn from, but not dwell on,” Whitaker said. “Going into tournament, we want to think about games like Ridgedale (a 58-27 win on Tuesday) or Buckeye Central. We want to be positive.”

Ontario used a big second half to win the junior varsity game, 44-15. Bucyrus trailed 17-12 at halftime but managed only three points in the second half.

Taylor Patterson led the Lady Red with nine points. Haley Guisinger finished with 10 for the Warriors.

Box Score

Bucyrus     8       8      3    11 — 30

Ontario    13      7    10    19 — 49

Stats

Bucyrus (11-10): Shots 10-42; 3-pt. shots 3-11 (Ni’Georia Floyd, Izzy Burling, Shaina Orewiler); Free throws 7-14; Rebounds 36 (Brooklyn Spears 10); Turnovers 23. Scoring: Ni’Georia Floyd 3 0 7, Alivia Lewis 1 3 5, Izzy Burling 3 1 8, Shaina Orewiler 3 3 10.

Ontario (13-8): Shots 18-56; 3-pt shots 2-9 (Nashail Shelby, Madelin Collins); Free throws 11-15; Rebounds 42 (Madeline Collins 16); Turnovers 14. Scoring: A’Sharion Houston 1 1 3, Londyn Niss 2 0 4, Nashail Shelby 8 2 19, Maddie Payne 1 0 2, Mecca Sewell 1 0 2, Carleigh Pearson 1 6 8, Madeline Collins 4 2 11.

JV: Ontario 44-15.

Twitter: @TF_Schmidt

208-530-3035