NEW WASHINGTON — If Bucyrus could bottle its third quarter offense against Buckeye Central, they would win a lot of basketball games.
The Redmen trailing at halftime by 18 points, outscored the Bucks, 21-6, in the third quarter to get back to within three points after three.
But Buckeye Central weathered the rally and pulled away to a 67-53 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory.
“We talked about it in the locker room (at halftime) — that’s the first thing we talked about — they’re not going to give up,” BC coach Tom Howell said. “They’re athletic kids. They compete, they play hard, and they did.”
Bucyrus (2-7, 0-5 N10) had dug a hole that was a little too deep to recover from.
“We’ve had a lot of kids out with the flu since our last win, I knew all week our problem was going to be energy,” Bucyrus coach Scott Gifford said of the sluggish first half. “(Buckeye Central) played Crestview (Wednesday) night. I knew they would be a little bit sharper.”
Two Bucks wreaked havoc on the Redmen in the first half. Manny Mullins scored 18 of his 22 points in the first half — including three 3-point shots — to help the hosts build a 44-26 lead at halftime. Tyler Sanderson added 16 of his game-high 27 points in the first two periods.
“Manny works his butt off. He’s been struggling and he’ll be the first one to tell you,” Howell said. “But his shots fell tonight and I’m happy for him.”
Sanderson, hobbled with a knee injury, registered 10 points in the second period, getting to the basket with relative ease.
“Give (Sanderson) credit. He’s playing on one leg,” Gifford said. “The guy’s just pure grit. Kudos to him.”
“I give that kid a lot of credit. He’s playing with a torn meniscus,” Howell said. “He was told it was just manage the pain. It’s not going to make it worse.”
Noah Burke kept the Redmen from getting completely blown out in the first half, scoring 10 of his team-high 14 points. But it was a team effort — offensively and defensively — in the third quarter that got Bucyrus back into the game.
Five different players scored for the Redmen in the frame. Malachi Bayless had six of his 11 points and Randy Banks added four as Bucyrus scored 21 — hitting 10 of 14 shots — to cut the deficit to 50-47 by period’s end.
“Third quarter’s where we left off against Ridgedale (a 71-63 win),” Gifford said. “It took us two quarters to get that back. The positive is, we got it back. Hopefully we can carry it forward.”
Just as importantly, the defense held hot-shooting Buckeye Central (4-6, 1-4) to six. Howell felt that the Redmen offense had a lot to do with his team’s going cold in the third quarter.
“I thought in the first half we were getting stops and that led to some of our good shots on the other end,” Howell said. “Then, they started making shots and we weren’t getting those again.
“I give my kids credit. They hung in there. They didn’t panic,” Howell added. “We ended up pulling it out. But you give (Bucyrus) credit as well, how hard they played.”
The Bucks went on an 11-0 run to start the fourth to essentially put the game away, leading 61-47. The defense held Bucyrus without a point in the period until Burke hit a pair of free throws with 3:17 remaining.
“When you get to the fourth quarter like that, you have to gamble a little bit,” Gifford said. “We did and we paid for it sometimes. I am super proud of our kids. They didn’t fold. We learn from it and move on.”
Banks scored 11 points to second Burke’s 14 for the Redmen. Banks also grabbed eight rebounds. Bayless’ 11 was four points under his average of 15, which was a goal of the Buckeye Central defense.
“We focused on stopping Malachi,” Howell admitted. “(Drew Rose) did a great job and the other guys (who guarded him) did a good job. And when you do that, you’re going to give something else up.
“The second half, they started to make shots,” Howell said. “They started finding the big kid (Burke) — he also hurt us in the first half, he had 10 points in the first half. But I’d rather stop Malachi.”
Sanderson (27) and Mullins (22) combined for 49 of the Bucks’ 67 total. Mullins had eight rebounds, while Sanderson and Trevor Kirgis had seven boards each.
“They hit a lot of shots, they hit their shots,” Gifford said of the Bucks. “I told our guys at halftime, ‘We’ve got to go out there, play with pride, represent our community. We’re not going to give up. I want to show them what we’re made of.’ We got it to within three.”
“It was a good win. I’ll take this win,” Howell said. “We’ve gone through some stuff. But that’s life. We’re trying to push through it. We’ve got to find our way.”
“I wish we could have closed it out (in the fourth quarter),” Gifford said. “We had to gamble a little bit to kind of keep the momentum going.
“I’m super proud of our kids,” he added. “Hats off to Buckeye Central. They’re injured too. But their kids hit shots when they needed to.”
Buckeye Central also won the junior varsity game, 35-24. Alec Phillips led the Bucks with 13 points. Chris Neale topped Bucyrus with nine.
Box score
Bucyrus 16 10 21 6 — 53
Buckeye Central 24 20 6 17 — 67
Bucyrus (2-7, 0-5 N10): Shots 21-49; 3-pt. shots 1-8 (Malachi Bayless); Free throws 10-15; Rebounds 26 (Randy Banks 8); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Blayne Barto 0 4 4, Noah Burke 7 0 14, Kam Lewis 1 2 4, Kavan Combs 2 3 7, Malachi Bayless 5 0 11, Tyrone Mass 1 0 2, Randy Banks 5 1 11.
Buckeye Central (4-6, 1-4 N10): Shots 24-53; 3-pt. shots 4-15 (Manny Mullins 4, Jack Phillips); Free throws 15-26; Rebounds 39 (Manny Mullins 8); Turnovers 8. Scoring: Drew Rose 1 1 3, Heath Jensen 0 1 1, Trevor Kirgis 2 0 4, Tyler Sanderson 8 11 27, Dom Dean 1 1 3, Jack Phillips 3 0 7, Manny Mullins 9 1 22.
JV: Buckeye Central 35-24.