NORTHWOOD — Last year, Bucyrus and Northwood played in the sectional semifinal at Monroeville.
Northwood got off to a great start and defeated the Redmen by 19 points. With the majority of that Rangers’ team back this year, and the change in venue to Northwood, it seemed Bucyrus was more of an underdog than a 10 versus 11 seed matchup would normally be.
But the size of the Redmen and the presence of a prolific scorer in Malachi Bayless — the leading scorer in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference — proved to be too much for the Rangers as Bucyrus led at every quarter break en route to a 72-66 win in a Division III sectional semifinal.
It was the first tournament win for Bucyrus since 2015, a 54-49 win over Wynford in the sectional at Oak Harbor.
Bucyrus (7-16) earns the right to play at No. 1 seed Ashland Crestview for a sectional title on Friday.
“We saw that (size advantage),” Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis said. “They played Fostoria, Toledo Christian, (Millbury) Lake — they kind of had size on (Northwood). They don’t battle hard on the blocks.
“We prepared for 2-3 (zone) for the last week. I was shocked when they went man. We didn’t even prepare for man because we felt like we definitely had the advantage in man. We like to over penetrate in the zone, so, that’s what we worked on. For them to run something we didn’t expect and have our kids go straight to the double low, it was nice to see.”
Northwood (8-15) looked to duplicate their game from last year, going out to a 7-2 lead to start the game. But Bucyrus outscored the hosts 22-7 over the last 5:15 of the first period to take a 24-15 lead after one.
Noah Burke exploited his size edge early, scoring nine of his 16 points in the first quarter along with four rebounds. Bayless added 11 of his game-high 33 in the frame to set the tone.
Bayless thought sticking to the offensive game plan was the key to the Redmen’s success.
“Our biggest goal was to not shoot (3-point shots),” Bayless said. “Their biggest thing was fast break, two passes, 3. We wanted to pound it inside and take less than 10 threes. I think we executed that pretty well.”
To Bayless’ point, Bucyrus took just 11 threes, connecting on five of them. And one of the attempts was Georgie Floyd’s desperation half-court shot at the halftime buzzer. So, the goal was essentially met.
“We didn’t want to shoot a lot of 3s because they like to leak out and get a lot of long rebounds and quick transition 3s,” Hargis said.
After the Redmen expanded their lead to 26-15 on a basket by Dylan Coppler to start the second quarter, the Rangers began to chip away. Brandon Claire scored eight of his 18 points in the period to pull Northwood to within 35-32 at halftime.
The free throw line was the Rangers’ friend as they made eight of 10 from the line in the second to help sustain the run. Still, they were not making, or even attempting a volume of 3s.
“The kids trusted the (defensive) game plan,” Hargis said. “We felt like, it wasn’t an easy guard, but the game plan was simple: Don’t let them shoot 3s.
“We came up here and watched them play Lakota, and they hit 20 3s.” Hargis added. “The Clair kid (Brandon) had 10. (Kaden) Cluckey had 8 threes in that same game. They both had 30 (points). I don’t even know if they got off 10 threes tonight.”
Northwood did attempt 16 three-pointers and made six. But even with the Rangers going 16 of 23 from the line, they could not hold off the Bucyrus onslaught.
They managed to take two leads and tie it twice in the third quarter, the last at 47-47. But Demarius Munn-Page drilled a 3 from the left corner with 12 seconds left in the third to regain Bucyrus’ lead at 50-47.
“We’re not a deep team. In the first quarter, we wanted to keep them in front, don’t give up a lot of 3s, and I think that’s what got us the win,” Hargis said. “And Malachi has 33 points. That doesn’t hurt.”
The fourth quarter was an offensive explosion, as the teams combined for 41 points. The Redmen nearly matched their first-quarter total of 24 with 22. The Rangers stayed close with 19 but could never regain the lead.
Bayless closed the game out with 13 points in the last eight minutes, including five of six from the line. Bucyrus was 10 of 11 from the stripe and 13 of 14 for the game.
Bayless, who virtually willed the Redmen to the win because he wasn’t ready for his career to end, credited Burke and Coppler for dominating in the post.
“Most importantly, they rebounded, I believe,” Bayless said. “It’s so nice stopping a good shooting team like that to one and done. It was a great team win.”
Burke finished with 15 rebounds to go with his 16 points. Coppler had six boards and eight points and Munn-Page had 13 points. Bayless drilled four 3s on his way to his 33 points. Bucyrus had a 35-22 edge on the glass.
Cluckey had a team-high 20 points to lead the Rangers to go with Claire’s 18. Thomas McCrory and Adam Schroeder had 11 each and Schroeder had nine rebounds, seven on the offensive end.
“We’re going to embrace the underdog role,” Hargis said. “We came in here and they were treating us like the underdogs. They beat us last year with basically the same team. We’ve got a younger team this year. But I think the chemistry’s there.”
As to the specter of playing the No. 1 seed in the district, Hargis doesn’t think his team is under any pressure.
“We got all the shots we’ve had all year. They just went in,” Hargis said. “They’ve been going in the past few games. They’ve been going in a little more in practice. The progress is there. We’re going to enjoy this one tonight and get back to the drawing board for Crestview.
“We don’t have anything to lose against Crestview,” Hargis said. “We’ll leave it all on the court. There’s only one ball out there. We’ll see what happens.”
Boys
Bucyrus 72, Northwood 66
Bucyrus 24 11 15 22 — 72
Northwood 15 17 15 19 — 66
Stats
Bucyrus (7-16): Shots 22-53; 3-pt. shots 5-11 (Malachi Bayless 4, Demarius Munn-Page); Free throws 13-14; Rebounds 35 (Noah Burke 15); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Georgie Floyd 0 2 2, Demarius Munn-Page 5 2 13, Noah Burke 6 4 16, Dylan Coppler 4 0 8, Malachi Bayless 12 5 33.
Northwood (8-15): Shots 22-52; 3-pt. shots 6-16 (Kaden Cluckey 3, Thomas McCrory 3); Free throws 16-23; Rebounds 22 (Adam Schroeder 9); Turnovers 6. Scoring: Brandon Clair 6 6 18, Kaden Cluckey 5 7 20, Ethan Clair 2 1 5, Thomas McCrory 4 0 11, Adam Schroeder 5 1 11, Carl Simmons, Jr. 0 1 1.