UPPER SANDUSKY — One milestone down, one to go.
Malachi Bayless scored 16 points at Upper Sandusky to pass Cade Dillon as the all-time leading scorer for Bucyrus. Dillon reached 976 in 1999 and had been the leader for 24 years.
But on this night, Bayless’ efforts — and those of the team — were not enough. Upper Sandusky put five players in double figures to glide past Bucyrus, 86-52, in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game.
Next up for Bayless: 1,000 points, obviously the first boy to ever achieve that goal for the Redmen.
“We all love Mali. I’m proud of him,” Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis said. “I wish (the record) would have been under better circumstances. He’s kept his head the whole year. There’s times when he could have been more selfish throughout this first eight games.”
The opposing coach had a similar observation of Bayless.
“Malachi’s a really nice player,” Upper Sandusky coach Jeff Winslow said. “I told him he was going to get 1,000, the first person in Bucyrus history — be proud of that.
“What I like about him is in some of their losses, like this one, when it’s out of hand, he still stays unselfish. He could just come out and try to shoot every time. He does not do that. He gave up a wide-open layup at the end to his teammate. I just like the way he plays.”
But the Rams’ balance was more than the Redmen could handle. Upper Sandusky (5-4, 2-3 N10) never trailed, running out to a 19-7 lead over the first 5:25 of the game, and settled for a 23-14 advantage after one.
The tone was set for the night, as six different Rams hit the scoring column in the opening eight minutes.
“We don’t guard. We fail to guard one-on-one,” Hargis said. “That’s where we’re lacking. It starts in practice.”
Bucyrus (1-7, 0-5) stayed within shouting distance in the second quarter as Bayless scored six of his team-high 16 points. Brock Montgomery dropped in eight of his 14 as Upper Sandusky was able to push the lead out to 39-27 at intermission.
The third quarter finished the job for the Rams, as the defense forced eight turnovers in the period — the Redmen had 29 for the game — and Bucyrus was limited to seven points. That allowed Upper Sandusky to hold a 56-34 bulge after three.
“Our pressure was pretty good tonight with limited fouls,” Winslow said. “That’s always a worry when you pressure like that. The last two (games), we’ve done a good job of pressuring without fouling, creating some turnovers, and getting us extra possessions.”
Turnovers have been an issue for the Redmen all season and Hargis is taking responsibility.
“It’s just on the coaches at this point — get back to the drawing board tomorrow,” Hargis said. “We had a good week of practice. You wouldn’t have known it by our performance tonight.”
Bucyrus was just overwhelmed by points coming from seemingly everywhere on the floor. Kaimen Iles had a game-high 19 points, while Holden Daris, Justin Heilman, and Josh Heilman had 15 each for the Rams. Montgomery added 14. Iles had a double double with 13 rebounds.
“You’re going to win a lot of games when you get five guys in double figures, let alone five guys with 14 or more,” Winslow said. “It just shows this team — we share the basketball and don’t favor scorers.”
Noah Burke had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Redmen in support of Bayless’ 16 points. Georgie Floyd added eight points, including a pair of 3-point shots.
But the turnovers were just too much for Bucyrus to overcome. Upper Sandusky committed 16 miscues, but still won the battle by 13.
“They just outworked us,” Hargis said. “They’re a drive-and-kick game. That’s what they do. They drive, kick, pivot, ball fake. Drive, kick, pivot, ball fake. They did that well tonight.”
“When you can’t stop your opponent from getting to the paint, you’re going to have a problem,” Hargis added. “We got totally broken down.”
“I thought we got a lot of volume of shots, but I still thought we left some points on the board with some missed easy ones inside,” Winslow said.
Hargis emphasized that, despite becoming the program’s leading scorer, Bayless continues to be a team player.
“We talked about deferring and getting these young guys involved and he’s done everything we’ve asked of him,” Hargis said. “He could have easily come out here and hunted for that 29 points (to 1,000). But he stayed within the game plan. The only bad shot is a dribble up three. If he’s going downhill, I’m comfortable with it.”
Winslow thinks his team has found its rhythm and is in position to get back into the league race.
“I think there are six teams in this league that can all beat each other,” Winslow said. “It might be 2-3 (league) losses. So, if we can go 1-0 each night, we can get back into this thing.”
Upper Sandusky won the junior varsity game, 53-16.
Box score
Bucyrus 14 13 7 18 — 52
Upper Sandusky 23 16 17 30 — 86
Stats
Bucyrus (1-7, 0-5 N10): Shots 19-48; 3-pt. shots 3-13 (Georgie Floyd 2, Malachi Bayless); Free throws 11-18; Rebounds 32 (Noah Burke 9); Turnovers 29. Scoring: Georgie Floyd 3 0 8, Noah Burke 4 2 10, Dylan Coppler 1 3 5, Jackson Farrar 2 0 4, Malachi Bayless 6 3 16, Tyrone Mass 1 2 4, Carson Witten 2 1 5.
Upper Sandusky (5-4, 2-3 N10): Shots 32-61; 3-pt. shots 4-12 (Brock Montgomery 2, Gavin Frey, Josh Heilman); Free throws 18-25; Rebounds 34 (Kaimen Iles 13); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Holden Daris 7 1 15, Justin Heilman 5 5 15, Gavin Frey 2 0 5, Brock Montgomery 5 2 14, Josh Heilman 6 2 15, Kaimen Iles 6 7 19, Parker Osborn 1 1 3.
JV: Upper Sandusky 53-16.