BUCYRUS — When the Redmen needed someone to step up, they turned to one of their junior leaders to do so in overtime.
Guard Malachi Bayless, who finished with a game-high 34 points, worked his magic with 7 in OT to propel Bucyrus to a 71-63 non-conference win at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium Tuesday night.
“That’s the weight of the world off our backs. These guys have worked so hard, and they haven’t reaped the rewards of their work. It’s awesome,” Redmen head coach Scott Gifford said.
It was the second win of the season for Bucyrus (2-6, 0-4) to break a three-game skid and its first victory at home.
Bayless came into the contest averaging 13 points per game. He had a dozen by halftime.
“When it went into overtime we could have instantly given up and folded it in, but they turned it up another notch. That’s how badly they wanted that win.”
The Redmen led 29-23 at halftime of a sloppy game. Bucyrus committed 27 turnovers to Ridgedale’s 18. The hosts built an 11-point lead at 26-15 midway through the second quarter.
“They’re running a 3-2 zone, so we knew the middle was wide open. So, we really focused on not settling for 3s. We were trying to get in the middle of that zone and try to dump it off. We played well, but honestly, we didn’t play our best basketball,” Gifford said.
“We made a lot of mistakes. We’re a young team. When we fix that I think we can be a pretty good team this year.”
Bayless got help from Randy Banks with 14 points and 11 rebounds and Noah Burke with 8 and 12 boards.
“He is pretty dynamic. He can score from anywhere on the court. He can drive it, shoot it. We started guarding him straight up man-to-man and then we went a little full court zone, which I think helped us get back in the game,” Rockets head coach Mike Mathey said.
“But he still got loose quite a bit. He gets out on rebounds really well and we just weren’t getting back. He was feeling it pretty good and took over in the overtime with the lay-up and the three-pointer that he had.”
An unlikely hero emerged for the Rockets as time expired in regulation.
“In the beginning we got ourselves down, but we didn’t quit. We were able to send it to overtime and (Logan) Rasnick hit a big 3 for us,” Mathey said.
Rasnick, a 6-foot junior, hadn’t touched the ball and didn’t even enter the game until the final quarter. But he stepped back from the left wing and calmly drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 59-59.
“We talk to our players all the time about being tough and being ready, and that was him tonight. He’s been playing jayvee a little bit to get ready. When the moment was there, he capitalized on it.”
But the final heroics belonged to Bayless, a three-sport athlete for the Redmen who credited his teammates for their leadership.
“Randy really stepped up. He has our respect in the locker room and we’re all there for each other,” Bayless said.
Ridgedale chipped away and outscored Bucyrus 17-14 in the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t give up. When they made that big 3 to send it to overtime, we knew it was a game where we had to step it up a little more. I thought our steals helped us tonight with fast-break opportunities. It feels good to come back home and get a W.”
In the overtime session, Bayless hit a basket and then a 3-point shot to offset Rasnick’s second 3-pointer. From there Burke got a huge block on Brayden Townsend and Bayless knocked down two from the charity stripe to put the game away.
Townsend led Ridgedale with 24 points and Gage Gleespen added 15 and 8 rebounds.
Bayless said he enjoys the up-tempo game.
“I played AAU when I was younger, so I am used to a fast-paced game. I hate going slow,” he said.
Gifford thought his team “did a really good job on the boards,” winning that battle, 35-31.
“There’s some things that we can fix. I think Noah and a few of the guys were a little under the weather and it showed a little bit. Noah’s been so consistent for us this year and he’s a great post player, rebounds really well. He’s young too. This is his first year on varsity,” he said.
“We gave them tomorrow (Wednesday) off. They were celebrating tonight, so we’ll bring them in and practice hard Thursday and keep on working on fundamentals and get ready for Carey (on Friday). Hopefully, we can take some of this momentum in there and maybe shock the world.”
Ridgedale falls to 1-6, 0-2 and Mathey knows where his club needs to improve.
“We gotta make free throws. We were 12-of-28 tonight from the free throw line. That’s unacceptable. And we got to rebound the basketball.
“We do those two things the score might be reversed tonight. But give credit to Bucyrus. They did enough to win. We didn’t.”
Bucyrus won the junior varsity game, 53-47. Jackson Farrar had 16 and Tyrone Mass 12. Brogan Weston netted 14 for the Rockets.
Box score
Ridgedale 13 10 19 17 4 — 63
Bucyrus 18 11 16 14 12 — 71
Ridgedale (1-6): Shots 21-56; 3-pt. shots 3-11 (Logan Rasnick 2, Jakob Gibson); Free throws 12-28; Rebounds 31 (Gage Gleespen 8); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Landon Murphy 0 3 3, Jakob Gibson 1 0 3, Gage Gleespen 5 5 15, Nathan Thiel 4 1 9, Logan Rasnick 3 0 6, Brayden Townsend 12 0 24, Evan Ricketts 0 2 2, Vince Schuster 0 1 1.
Bucyrus (2-6): Shots 30-58; 3-pt. shots 2-4 (Malachi Bayless 2); Free throws 9-17; Rebounds 35 (Noah Burke 12, Randy Banks 11); Turnovers 27. Scoring: Blayne Barto 1 1 3, Noah Burke 2 4 8, Kam Lewis 1 0 2, Kavan Combs 4 0 8, Malachi Bayless 14 4 34, Tyrone Mass 1 0 2, Randy Banks 7 0 14.
JV: Bucyrus 53-47.