MANSFIELD — Bucyrus needed a mental lift after a tough night in a 40-point loss at Mohawk Friday.

They got just what the doctor ordered on their trip to St. Peter’s Saturday.

The Redmen overcame a sluggish start offensively — outscoring the hosts 18-6 in the second quarter — before cruising to a 64-33 win over the Spartans at the Franciscan Center.

“We started slow (offensively),” Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis said. “Tyrone Mass kind of gave us the energy we needed defensively to kind of create a few turnovers, get a few fast break layups, see the ball go through the hoop.”

Mass scored just two points, according to the scorebook. But his defensive efforts helped create 15 first-half St. Peter’s turnovers and 26 for the game.

The Spartans scored the first four points of the game on a pair of free throws and a basket by Sidiki Sissoko. But the Redmen went on a 10-2 run to the end of the quarter, to take a 10-6 lead after one. St. Peter’s (1-13) never led again.

One thing St. Peter’s did well was rebound against the bigger Redmen. The Spartans held a 40-34 advantage on the boards — they just couldn’t turn that into points consistently. They had 17 offensive rebounds.

“Their offensive rebounds didn’t kill us,” Hargis said. “But any (Northern 10 Athletic Conference) team — that’s been our story all season. We just didn’t rebound early enough. They were boxing out earlier than we were. I think we underestimated them. We were bigger. They played a little harder on the block early.”

But 26 turnovers more than offset any advantage the rebounding created. Combined with the Spartans’ 11-of-44 shooting, Bucyrus (4-10) was able to roll to the 34-point win.

Free throws were not the Redmen’s friend as they hit just two of 11. But they were a very warm 30 of 60 from the field.

Malachi Bayless led the way with 26 points and Dylan Coppler came off the bench to score 10. Bayless had eight rebounds and Jackson Farrar added seven boards.

Hargis was pleased with the play of his young bench players and the amount of playing time he could afford them.

“Sophomores — they’re the next man up,” Hargis said. “There’s no juniors in the program and there won’t be. So, we’re trying to get them as many quarters as possible. I thought they came off the bench tonight and played well.”

Antonio Lindsay led St. Peter’s with 10 points and Dmoni Lentes grabbed seven rebounds.

“Overall, I’m happy with the win,” Hargis said. “I thought we could have played better, but a win’s a win.”

The coach hopes the win restores team confidence to handle the rest of the season.

“We’ve got Wynford and Crawford coming up. We’re just trying to play the spoilers,” Hargis said. “We’re not winning a league championship. The race is tight, and I think some teams might come in and look past us.”

Box score

Bucyrus      10    18     19     17 — 64

St. Peter’s     6       6     11     10 — 33

Stats

Bucyrus (4-10): Shots 30-60; 3-pt. shots 2-7 (Demarius Munn-Page, Malachi Bayless); Free throws 2-11; Rebounds 34 (Jackson Farrar 8, Malachi Bayless 8); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Georgie Floyd 3 0 6, Demarius Munn-Page 3 1 8, Noah Burke 4 0 8, Dylan Coppler 5 0 10, Jackson Farrar 2 0 4, Malachi Bayless 12 1 26, Tyrone Mass 1 0 2.

St. Peter’s (1-13): Shots 11-44; 3-pt. shots 2-11 (Antonio Lindsay, Jaxen Haynes); Free throws 9-16; Rebounds 40 (Dmoni Lentes 13); Turnovers 26. Scoring: Dmoni Lentes 4 0 8, Antonio Lindsay 3 3 10, Sidiki Sissoko 1 3 5, Jaydon Fultz 1 0 2, Markeis Johnson 1 0 2, Jaxen Haynes 1 2 5, Sincere Wells 0 1 1.

JV: Bucyrus won.