NEW WASHINGTON — On a night when the tempo was slow and points came at a premium, the defenses took center stage.

Buckeye Central’s defense was slightly better.

The Buckettes held Wynford to just seven-for-37 shooting on the night and just 16 points over the final three periods of the game to gain a 37-25 win over the Royals.

With the win, the Buckettes stayed in first place in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference with a 9-0 record, 11-2 overall. Wynford fell to 5-4 in the conference, 8-5 overall.

Wynford coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon said that her team did a good job of limiting BC stars Claudia Pifher and Taylor Ratliff to 10 and four points, respectively. Lexi Evak paced the Buckettes with 11 points.

“Part of our defensive effort had to be, we’re going to limit Ratliff and Pifher and try and do our best to keep Evak off the boards,” Taylor-Sheldon said.

“The first quarter and a half we didn’t keep Evak off the boards, all eight of her points were all on put-backs. So, we tried to refocus on her a little bit. But once we got over the hump, we were really consistent defensively.”

After the Royals a held a 9-6 lead on two free throws from Savannah Tobias, Ratliff knocked down a jumper in the lane and Ally Green drilled a 3-point shot, giving BC an 11-9 lead, one the Buckettes would never lose.

“We did a good job of knowing personnel and what they were going to try to do,” BC coach Abram Kaple said. “We bought into the scouting report and, obviously, we figured out that shots weren’t going in. You’re going to win the basketball game on the other end.

“When you hold a team like that, which is leading the league in scoring,” Kaple added. “The tempo was slower, but we still did a pretty good job on the defensive end.”

BC led by as many as 12 late in the game.

Tobias led the Royals with 14 points, but the rest of the team scored 11 points.

“We shot some free throws and got some shots inside,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “We had our chances and that’s what we tried to create. We just didn’t make some shots.”

Green backed up the BC big three with 10 points on the night.

“It wasn’t pretty, and we played it slow, but it goes in the left-hand column and that’s all that matters at this point,” Kaple said.

Kaple said that his team is getting better on the defensively.

“We’re better than we were last year on the defensive end,” Kaple said. “We still have kids learning how to guard different things. Wynford ran some different things, so being able to deal with the end of quarters and coming out of timeouts and that’s just credit for what these kids want to do.”

Box score

Wynford                          9     3      7      5 — 25

Buckeye Central      13     6      6     12 — 37

Wynford (8-5, 5-4 N10): Shots 7-38; 3-pt. shots 2-13 (Rylee Alspach, Mia Leuthold); Free throws 9-14; Rebounds 23; Turnovers 14. Scoring: Rylee Alspach 1 2 5, Mia Leuthold 1 0 3, Briley Pollock 0 1 1, Savannah Tobias 4 6 14, Averi McMillan 1 0 2.

Buckeye Central (11-2, 9-0 N10): Shots 12-35; 3-pt. shots 3-16 (Ally Green 2, Claudia Pifher); Free throws 10-11; Rebounds 24 (Lexi Evak 9); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Kendra Ackerman 1 0 2, Claudia Pifher 2 5 10, Taylor Ratliff 1 2 4, Ally Green 3 2 10, Lexi Evak 5 1 11.

JV: Wynford 25-18.