ATTICA — Seneca East guard Isaac Mason is a special player and he stepped it up against Buckeye Central.

Mason broke the Seneca East school single game scoring record with 46 points Friday night. But it wasn’t enough.

The Bucks used tremendous offensive balance and a great ability to move without the basketball to outscore the Tigers, 21-12, in the fourth period en route to a 72-67 win.

With the win, BC improved to 1-2 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 2-5 overall, while Seneca East dropped to 0-2 in the conference, 2-3 overall.

Despite Mason’s overwhelming offensive performance, the Bucks were able to counterbalance it with their own, especially in the fourth period.

The Bucks entered the final frame trailing 55-51, as Mason had scored 36 of his team’s points.

BC dropped four 3-point shots early in the period, including three straight from Alex Kanney, Tyler Sanderson and Kanney once again, giving the Bucks a 67-62 lead with 2:56 left.

The game then turned into a free throw shooting contest. Mason dropped 16 of 17 free throws for the game and hit five of five in the final frame.

BC only hit five of its final 13 free throws for the game, but the Bucks’ defensive effort down the stretch was the difference.

“We did a pretty good job on the defensive side of the floor, even though we gave up nearly 70 points, but we came up with some big shots when we had to,” Buckeye Central coach Tom Howell said.

Still, Howell was impressed with Mason’s performance.

“The first half, it’s hard to stop someone like that,” Howell said. “He’s just knocking down 3s after 3s after 3s.

“But we hung in there with our game plan. We didn’t change much,” he added. “In the second half, it sorta worked better, we executed a little better. But he is a tough man to stop.”

BC got four 3s and 17 points from Kanney, 15 points from Sanderson and 12 points and 10 rebounds from Aiden McDougal, the fourth double-double for the BC post.

Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst felt that BC outplayed his team.

“I’ll give Coach Howell credit, his kids were operating well in space, they definitely outplayed us, and they outcoached us,” Langhurst said. “Our team wasn’t prepared for it. And that’s on the coaching staff.”

Mason finished with eight 3s, but BC knocked down nine 3s for the game.

“We had some kids step up,” Howell said. “We got some quality points and quality rebounds, I thought we did a great job on the boards with McDougal and Dean.”

Howell also felt that his team struggled from the free throw line. The Bucks made just nine of 26 shots from the stripe to 16 of 20 for Seneca East.

“If I have to take one bad thing from this, we have to make free throws,” Howell said. “But we’re working on that.

Mason was instrumental offensively for the Tigers in the first half, hitting seven 3s and scoring 23 points as the Tigers held a 38-32 lead at the half.

BC managed to cut into the lead after three but still trailed, 55-51.

While Mason got his offense, the rest of the Seneca East team scored just 21 points.

“(Mason is) the only returning player with any varsity experience,” Langhurst said. “We’re obviously leaning on him offensively but tonight offense wasn’t really the issue for the Tigers.”

Langhurst felt that his defense was the issue.

“(BC was) executing well in their man-to-man,” Langhurst said. “They were able to switch it up a little bit and then they played well in their zone. It seemed like one of those nights where we couldn’t get anything going as far as stops.

“If they weren’t hitting shots, they were getting offensive rebounds,” he added. “Their kids just played harder than we did and executed a lot better than us. That’s a recipe for a tough loss for us.”

Seneca East won the junior varsity game, 59-27. Bradley Smith and Lucas Bordner paced the Tigers with 13 points each. Noah Wilson scored 13 points for the Bucks.

Box score

Buckeye Central    18     14     19     21 — 72

Seneca East             18     20     17     12 — 67

Stats

Buckeye Central (2-5, 1-2 N10): Shots 27-54; 3-pt. shots 9 (Alex Kanney 4, Casey Geissman 2, Logan Niese, Aiden McDougal, Tyler Sanderson); Free throws 9-26; Rebounds 33; Turnovers 12. Scoring: Logan Niese 2 0 5, Stephen Sostakowski 3 0 6, Casey Geissman 3 0 8, Aiden McDougal 5 1 12, Tyler Sanderson 4 6 15, Damien Dean 4 1 9, Alex Kanney 6 1 17.

Seneca East (2-3, 2-3 N10): Shots 21-54; 3-pt 9 (Isaac Mason 8, Alex King); Free throws 16-20; Rebounds 22; Turnovers 9. Scoring: Alex King 3 0 7, Isaac Mason 11 16 46, Kadin Snay 2 0 4, Isaac Sexton 3 0 6, Lucas Hicks 2 0 4.

JV: Seneca East 59-27.