NEW WASHINGTON — According to Buckeye Central assistant coach Lauren Everhart, the Buckettes have worked more on the defensive end of the floor.
“We’ve kinda turned to be more of a defensive team,” Everhart said. “I know in the past we’ve really been focusing on executing our offense but this year we’ve really been trying to up our defensive game.
“The girls have done a really good job of turning the corner on focusing more on defense as opposed to offense and kinda letting things flow into their offense,” she added.
The Buckettes can still score, too.
The Buckettes limited Colonel Crawford to just 16 shots in each half and, on offense, shot 60 percent from the floor in downing the Eagles, 63-35, Friday night.
With the win, BC improved to 9-0 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 10-0 overall. Crawford dropped to 3-3 in the league, 5-4 overall.
BC hit 25 of 42 field goal tries and knocked down six 3-point shots, while the Eagles made 13 of 32 shots from the floor.
BC star Claudia Pifher led the Buckettes with 19 points and Taylor Ratliff added 16. But Emily Siesel had 16 as well, something BC has been looking for.
“Emily is really starting to jell with the team,” Everhart said. “She does a great job passing the ball and she knows when to get her own, too. We have faith in Emily, and we know she will know what to do when she gets it. She’s awesome to have, obviously.”
Everhart said that the team’s balance is critical.
“It’s been really great to be able to have an unselfish group of girls who can score in different ways,” she added. “It really makes them more of an offensive threat to kind of spread the points and get everyone to score.”
Col. Crawford coach Kyle Fenner felt that Siesel’s ability to be another scorer makes a good team even better.
“They’re really good,” Fenner said of the Buckettes. “You can’t take anything away from them, three guards who are really, really good.
“(Emily Siesel) changes it,” Fenner added. “As I told the girls, they have three guards that can score multiple ways. They can shoot it from behind the arc, they can put it on the floor, and they can pull up and get to the basket. And they understand the game. Their basketball IQs are really, really good.”
The Buckettes jumped out to an 8-0 lead before the Eagles got a basket from Allison Teglovic and a 3 from Theresa Dzugan to cut the lead to 8-5.
That was the closest the Eagles got.
From there, BC outscored Crawford, 11-2, the rest of the period and held a 19-7 lead after one.
The Buckettes also outscored Crawford, 19-7, in the second period and held a 38-14 lead at the break.
The Eagles found their bearings in the second half as Kaylyn Risner scored eight of her team-high 13 points. But the deficit was too much to overcome.
“We decided that we were going to get up defensively, force a little bit of action and when that happened, we started getting some steals, they started taking some shots, and we started rebounding, getting out on the break and the girls played a lot better in the second half,” Fenner said.