NEW WASHINGTON — A year ago, the Buckeye Central Buckettes played perhaps their worst game of the year in a 27-21 loss to Carey.

BC coach Abram Kaple said that his team may have taken the Blue Devils lightly in that game.

“You know, that was something we discussed,” Kaple said of that game. “The girls we had back understood that was bulletin board material. To be honest, we overlooked them last year, and we didn’t play our best. That was definitely something we talked about.”

Saturday afternoon, the Buckettes overlooked nothing, especially the Blue Devils.

BC shot 57 percent from the floor and played smothering defense in the half-court, setting up offense from their defense in a 77-31 win over Carey in a crucial Northern 10 Athletic Conference game.

With the win, the Buckettes improved to 7-0 in the conference, 10-0 overall. Carey fell to 4-2 in the league, 6-2 overall.

Carey coach Phil Vaughn said that his team was ready for BC but stopping them was a different story.

“We knew everything they ran tonight, they just started hitting so many shots and we hung our heads a little bit and lost some confidence and turnovers turned into transition buckets,” Vaughn said. “It was a snowball; you just can’t hang your head against a team like that. They’re just too talented.”

Carey got a pair of buckets from post Sadie Arend early in the game to tie it at 4-4, but the Blue Devils never scored for the rest of the period as BC held a 19-4 lead after one.

Arend was in foul trouble early and never got into the flow the rest of the night.

“No excuses,” Vaughn said. “We’ve been in foul trouble before. We have to step up and execute and even under defensive pressure. You have to keep your poise, keep your confidence, not worry about the last play.”

Kaple felt that his team would have to put together a complete game to beat Carey.

“They’re 6-1 and off to a good start, so even taking that out of the equation, we understand that they are a really good team and well-coached, so we were ready for the task,” Kaple said. “We were mentally engaged and knew what was at stake.”

The Buckettes forced 28 Carey turnovers and used their strong perimeter defense to set up their impressive offense.

“We did some good things on the defensive end,” Kaple said. “We’re continuing to focus on getting into passing lanes and staying active. We’re getting better. I think we’re leading the league in turnovers forced and that’s where we want to be. The last two years that I’ve been here, we’ve been very conservative on the defensive end. I’m glad to see that our emphasis on that is being shown on the court on game night.”

Because of the prime opportunities, BC hit 29 of 51 shots from the floor. Star guard Claudia Pifher, who leads the N10 in scoring, led the way with 17 points, while Taylor Ratliff added 14 and Kyleigh Brown came off the bench to score 13.

Showing excellent balance, teammates Julia Evak and Emily Siesel scored nine and Kendra Ackerman seven.

“It’s something we’ve continued to harp on; they get pressured if they don’t shoot it well,” Kaple said. “We shoot it well in practice, and I tell the girls that there will be a day and a time when the shots fall, and it won’t be just one girl.

“Fortunately, we picked a good day to do it against a real quality opponent,” Kaple added. “I think we showed what we were capable of doing offensively when we get things going. We’ll build a lot of confidence just seeing the ball go through the net.

We played well offensively. We got what we wanted. They switch a lot of screens, so we had some different things that we wanted to do. I thought we did a great job of doing everything we wanted to do.”’

Carey won the junior varsity game, 39-25. Paige Collene scored eight points for Buckeye Central.

Box score

Carey                           4     12        7        8 — 31

Buckeye Central    19     20      25     13 — 77

Carey (6-2, 4-2 N10): Shots 11-37; 3-pt. shots 2 (Julia Brodman, Macy Wentling); Free throws 7-10; Rebounds 18; Turnovers 28. Scoring: Ellison Roark 1 0 2, Julia Brodman 2 1 6, Alaina Tiell 2 3 7, Avarie Stewart 2 3 7, Hunter Hart 1 0 2, Sadie Arend 2 0 4, Macy Wentling 1 0 3.

Buckeye Central (10-0, 7-0 N10): Shots 29-57; 3-pt. shots 7 (Taylor Ratliff 3, Kendra Ackerman, Claudia Pifher, Emily Siesel, Kyleigh Brown); Free throws 12-16; Rebounds 26 (Claudia Pifher 10); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Kendra Ackerman 3 0 7, Claudia Pifher 7 2 17, Julia Evak 4 1 9, Emily Siesel 3 2 9, Taylor Ratliff 4 3 14, Ryley Kantzer 1 1 5 Sydney Wurm 1 1 3, Kyleigh Brown 5 2 13.

JV: Carey 39-25.