MORRAL — Bucyrus has been playing better the second half of the season with not much to show for it.
The improvement came to fruition at Ridgedale Friday night.
The Redmen shot 51 percent from the field and used a 19-point fourth quarter to pull away from the Rockets, 61-39, in a non-league game.
“That’s obviously a win we definitely needed,” Bucyrus coach Scott Gifford said. “It shows the kids we are getting better. The wins just weren’t coming because we were playing the elite teams in the league. We were hanging with them.”
The game was decidedly different than the teams’ first meeting of the season that the Redmen won, 71-63, in overtime at Bucyrus on Dec. 20.
“Give (Bucyrus) credit. They played a good game,” Ridgedale coach Mike Mathey said. “Probably playing in the (Northern 10 Athletic Conference) prepares them pretty well. It’s a pretty good conference. They’re trending in the right way at the right time.”
The Redmen got off to a great start offensively, going out to an 18-10 lead in the first quarter. Ridgedale (2-15) managed to score the last five points of the frame to trail, 18-15, at period’s end.
Bucyrus (3-11) expanded the lead to 16, at 33-17, on a basket by Kavan Combs with 2:12 left in the half. But the Rockets chipped away to go to the locker room at the break down 33-23.
Malachi Bayless — fourth in the N10 in scoring — had 13 of his game-high 24 points in the first half. But Gifford was pleased with the team effort, as well.
“They’re finally starting to see that when we run the offense and don’t just stand and watch Malachi (it works),” Gifford said. “That’s kind of the standard when you’ve got a player as good as Mali. Players tend to stand and watch. We’re finally getting them to get some motion going and set some screens which opens things up and makes it easier for everybody.”
Randy Banks had 11 points and Kam Lewis added 10 — including two key 3-point shots in the second half — for the Redmen.
“The past two weeks in practice, I’ve only been shooting layups to get (the team) extra shots,” Bayless said. “It’s good to see how they stepped up. It’s nice to see other people in double digits.”
The third quarter has been a bugaboo for Bucyrus and this game was no different. The Rockets went on an 8-2 run to start the second half, cutting the deficit to 35-31 on a basket by Nathan Thiel with 3:29 left in the third quarter.
But the Redmen settled down and eased back out to a 42-33 advantage after three.
“We cut it to (four),” Mathey said. “Then (Lewis) came down and hit (a 3) and we never got closer.”
Lewis hit his second 3 early in the fourth quarter to take the lead to 47-33, which was for all intents and purposes the dagger. It was part of a 13-0 start to the final period that turned a close game into a rout.
“We’ve been doing things in practice to work on our third quarter lull,” Gifford said. “It helped a little. It got us through their little wave. Then, I think some things we did in practice definitely helped us in the fourth quarter.”
The Redmen finished the game with a 19-6 edge in the final eight minutes to come away with the 22-point win.
Thiel led Ridgedale with 19 points and 10 rebounds. But Brayden Townsend was next with eight points. The Rockets shot just 30 percent from the field.
“There have been times this year when we’ve struggled to put the ball in the basket,” Mathey said. “You can only control what you can control. I know the kids aren’t out there trying to miss shots. Tonight, we didn’t get quite a few of them to fall and (the Redmen) were able to get in transition and got some easy buckets.”
Bucyrus held a 35-31 rebound advantage. Noah Burke grabbed 12 boards to lead the Redmen to go with his six points. Combs finished with eight points to support the double-digit scorers.
“I’ve been telling some of the guys, ‘You’re doing it in practice. At some point, it’s going to start clicking in a game,’” Gifford said. “Once it clicks, it clicks, and it clicked for some of our guys tonight.”
“They have the capability of getting kind of hot and Bayless is a pretty tough player. He’s been pretty consistent all year,” Mathey said. “Tonight, the other guys chipped in with him and really hurt us.”
“I’m so proud of the kids,” Gifford said. “I’m just so happy they’re getting a reward for their hard work.
“They could have folded their tent, thrown in the towel with all these losses,” he added. “But every day they’ve been coming in and working hard. They’re drinking the Kool Aid, I guess you could say.”
Ridgedale won the junior varsity game, 46-40. Caiden Daniel had 11 points and Vince Shuster added 10 for the Rockets. Damarius Munn-Page had 11 and Devin Deskins finished with 10 for Bucyrus.
Box score
Bucyrus 18 15 9 19 — 61
Ridgedale 15 8 10 6 — 39
Bucyrus (3-11): Shots 26-51; 3-pt. shots 4-13 (Kam Lewis 2, Malachi Bayless 2); Free throws 5-7; Rebounds 35 (Noah Burke 12); Turnovers 26. Scoring: Kam Lewis 4 0 10, Noah Burke 3 0 6, Kavan Combs 4 0 8, Malachi Bayless 10 2 24, Brock Frost 1 0 2, Randy Banks 4 3 11.
Ridgedale (2-15): Shots 15-50; 3-pt. shots 1-11 (Nathan Thiel); Free throws 8-18; Rebounds 31 (Nathan Thiel 10); Turnovers 25. Scoring: Gage Gleespen 0 1 1, Nathan Thiel 8 2 19, Logan Rasnick 3 0 6, Brayden Townsend 3 2 8, Evan Ricketts 1 3 5.
JV: Ridgedale 46-40.