WILLARD — Buckeye Central is synonymous with the girls’ Division IV district tournament at Willard High School. The Buckettes are in their fifth straight tournament at Haas Gymnasium.
A young South Central team felt the effects of that experience in the opening round of this year’s district semifinal.
Buckeye Central pushed the pace to build a 22-point halftime lead and then cruised to a 64-24 victory.
“They started three freshmen guards and our, kind of, MO going in was, they’re in a little bit of uncharted water here,” Buckeye Central coach Abram Kaple said. “Let’s speed them up and basically get them to play faster than they’re comfortable playing. I thought we did a decent job of that.”
The Buckettes’ offense seemed to sputter a little in the early going even though they went out to a 17-7 lead in the first quarter. Kaple thought part of that was due to the Trojans bringing the wrong uniform colors, meaning both teams were in black.
“The jersey thing is a nightmare,” Kaple said. “I think that forced some uncharacteristic turnovers — kind of out of position — and we threw the ball away because of that.”
The Trojans were assessed a technical foul, which Claudia Pifher converted into two gift points. Buckeye Central (22-2) never trailed from there, nor was the game ever tied.
The Buckettes used a 9-0 run in the first period and an 13-2 run in the second — where they made baskets on six straight possessions — to go out to a 36-14 lead at halftime.
“They run a lot of 1-3-1 (zone defense) and rightfully so with the length that they have,” Kaple said. “We had prepared for that. We didn’t execute as well as I would have liked. Eventually, we kind of settled in a little bit, had a little more patience and good ball movement.”
Buckeye Central got the game into a running clock — a 35-point advantage in the second half — on a basket by Emily Siesel at 5:37 of the third quarter, that made it 50-14, and it remained so for the rest of the game.
Pifher scored 18 of her game-high 22 points in the first half and Siesel had 15 of her 21 points in the third quarter to lead the Buckettes. Eight different BC players scored in all. Pifher had four rebounds.
Claire Osborn had eight points for the Trojans and Grace Lamoreaux was next with four points. Angela Williams had six boards.
“We turned down shots I would have liked to have seen us take,” Kaple said. “We talked about that at halftime and we made some good adjustments moving forward.
“I told the girls, ‘You won by 40. You didn’t have to shoot the ball well,’” Kaple said. “’Save them for Saturday.’”
An oddity of the blowout is that Taylor Ratliff did not score. Kaple was not worried.
“She doesn’t care (about not scoring),” Kaple said. “All she cares is (the game) goes in the left-hand column. That’s what you want your senior leader to do.
“It’s about winning and going on to the next step,” Kaple continued. “Taylor is a competitor, a 1,000-point scorer. It’s not going to happen again, I promise you that.”
That next step is now a huge one — a third meeting with Northern 10 Athletic Conference foe Seneca East, a 56-40 winner over Norwalk St. Paul in the opening game at Willard.
“We’re familiar with Seneca East, obviously being in our conference and beating them twice in two really close games,” Kaple said. “We told the seniors this is going to be the toughest game in your career in terms of emotion and physicality. (Seneca East) felt they let one get away from them last year in the same game. So, we have to be mentally and physically prepared the next 48 hours as to what’s going to come.”
Game time Saturday is 7 p.m. back at Willard.
Box score
Buckeye Central 17 19 24 4 — 64
South Central 7 7 4 6 — 24
Buckeye Central (22-2): Shots 24-47; 3-pt. shots 6-15 (Kendra Ackerman 2, Claudia Pifher 2, Emily Siesel 2); Free throws 10-11; Rebounds 26 (Claudia Pifher 4); Turnovers 8. Scoring: Kendra Ackerman 3 0 8, Claudia Pifher 8 4 22, Julia Evak 2 0 4, Emily Siesel 8 3 21, Rylee Kantzer 0 1 1, Sydney Wurm 1 0 2, Kyleigh Brown 2 0 4, Paige Collene 0 2 2.
South Central (): Shots 8-38; 3-pt. shots 0-2; Free throws 8-14; Rebounds 26 (Angela Williams 6); Turnovers 14. Scoring: Kendyl Beverly 0 3 3, Kennedy Deppen 1 1 3, Grace Lamoreaux 2 0 4, Claire Osborn 3 2 8, Ashley Copus 1 1 3, Emma Suddith 0 1 1, Ivy Ott 1 0 2.