BUCYRUS — The first game of the season is always full of energy. Add in a century-old rivalry and the intensity increases.
Bucyrus fed off both for the first quarter-plus, but Galion’s athleticism took the game over from there.
The Tigers used an 11-2 run at the end of the second quarter to build a 33-20 halftime lead then pulled away in the second half to a 69-40 non-league victory at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“We did a decent job of competing in the first half,” Bucyrus coach Justin Mattix said. “We ride on emotions. In the first part of the first half, we rode on the emotions that this is the first game and we’re at our place. But Mike Tyson has this quote, ‘Everybody has a game plan until you get punched in the face.’ That’s kind of what happened.”
The Redmen got out to the early lead. Kenton Lutz scored twice, and Jaylen Zehner scored to give Bucyrus a 6-2 advantage. Zehner’s free throw midway through the frame kept the lead at 7-4.
But Galion closed out the period on a 7-2 run — all seven coming from junior Isaiah Alsip — and the Tigers were up, 11-9, after one.
Though they never regained the lead, the Redmen managed to tie it twice, the last at 15-15 on a basket by Lucas Kozinski and were still within 20-18 on a 3-point shot by Kozinski with 2:53 left in the half.
However, Galion scored 13 of the final 15 points of the half to ease out to the 13-point cushion at intermission. Alsip scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the first half.
“He did just about everything for them tonight,” Mattix said of Alsip. “He even got in foul trouble and he learned to play through it. He’s a smart kid.
“We scouted him,” Mattix continued. “We did a really good job against their sets. But when they’ve got a playmaker like that, and we take everything away, he just creates for himself. He’s just one of those kids who can make things happen and he did tonight.”
A 25-point third quarter by the Tigers erased any doubt as to the outcome as it pushed the Galion advantage to 58-30. Jack McElligott had 10 and Gage Lackey added eight in the quarter for Galion.
Lackey seconded Alsip with 21 points and McElligott added 13 to lead the Tiger attack. Lackey pulled down 13 rebounds.
Kozinski topped Bucyrus with 11 points and eight rebounds. Zehner added 10 points and Zane Seybert came off the bench to score eight.
“We put on the board all week that we wanted to take more shots than them, or at least enough” Mattix said. “Last year, they took 24 more shots than us because of offensive rebounds and turnovers. We did a really solid job of taking the same amount of shots. Unfortunately, theirs went in and ours didn’t.”
The Redmen hit only 15 of 50 shot attempts, while the Tigers were good on 26 of 62.
“I’ve got to do a better job of making sure we have a more even keel, we’re focused and not getting too high,” Mattix said. “We want them to have that excitement, we want that passion, but we also want to see them focused.
“The good thing is this is a non-league game against a really good team and we’ll go from here.”
Galion held off a late Bucyrus rally to win the junior varsity game, 43-39. Gabe Higginbotham had a game-high 15 points for the Redmen and Mike Wise added 14.
Rece Payne had 10 points and Carter Keinath nine to lead the Tigers.
Galion 11 22 25 11 — 69
Bucyrus 9 11 10 10 — 40
Galion: (1-0): Shots 26-62; 3-pt. shots 6-12 (Isaiah Alsip 3, Jack McElligott 3); Free throws 11-17; Rebounds 45 (Gage Lackey 13); Turnovers 13. Scoring: Isaiah Alsip 9 2 23, Jack McElligott 5 0 13, Gage Lackey 9 3 21, Carter Valentine 0 1 1, Rece Payne 0 2 2, Hanif Donaldson 2 2 6, Tristan Williams 1 1 3.
Bucyrus: (0-1): Shots 15-50; 3-pt. shots 2-11 (Lucas Kozinski, Harley Robinson-Koge); Free throws 8-16; Rebounds 31 (Lucas Kozinski 8); Turnovers 21. Scoring: Zane Seybert 3 2 8, Jaylen Zehner 4 2 10, Kenton Lutz 2 0 4, Lucas Kozinski 4 2 11, Harley Robinson-Koge 1 0 3, Dylan Goff 1 1 3, Kyle Hamm 0 1 1.
JV: Galion 43-39.