BUCYRUS — The Redmen were firing on all cylinders, using their speed, size, and experience to dominate county rival Crestline.

Nine players reached the scoring column in the 76-41 win on the Phil A. Joseph Court at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium in Tuesday night’s non-league game.

Bucyrus (5-14) raced out to an 11-0 lead in the first 3 minutes and held firm control over the young Bulldogs.

“It’s a big win. We’ve had a few tough stretches this year. So, every win we get we’re not going to de-value it,” said Bucyrus head coach Brian Hargis.

“We wanted to get out and pressure them early and play hard. I think they played as hard as us. They won some loose balls, those 50/50 balls, and we weren’t too happy with that.

“Overall, we stuck to the game plan and worked in some new things that we’ve worked on over the last week. We looked a little more fluid with the guys,” he said.

Malachi Bayless paced the Redmen with 22 points. He added 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

Sophomore guard Georgie Floyd added 17 and classmate Demarius Munn-Page 12. Floyd added 6 boards, 4 assists and a steal and Munn-Page 3 rebounds, an assist, and a pair of steals.

Crestline (3-17) was led by 6-foot-6 sophomore post Brett Cheney, with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Kieran Barnett added 11 and Kody Lawhorn 8.

Bulldogs head coach Paul Webb took the blame for his team’s loss.

“We weren’t ready to play and that’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job in having my guys ready to play.”

Crestline dressed only 8 players for the varsity game.

“I don’t like to use that as an excuse. Obviously, I’d like to have more kids, but if I’ve got to roll with 5, we’ve got to find a way to get it done,” Webb said.

“I don’t want to use excuses forever. I’ve used we’re young and we don’t have enough kids all year. It’s time for us all to kind of grow up and start playing for 32 (minutes).”

By halftime, the lead had swelled to 45-19.

Floyd hit a pair of threes and Carson Witten contributed 6 points off the bench in the second period and added two rebounds.

“They’re not deep. We wanted to get out. We worked on the break a lot last week and on Monday. I thought we rebounded OK. But really, we just played unselfish,” Hargis said.

“Georgie had a nice little game with 16. Maly had his usual. He’s always going to be up there. We just need those role players to realize they’re not role players. They’ve got talent. They can score.

“We got early minutes from Carson. He played well and got some nice dump-offs from the guards. He came straight off the bench and contributed and that’s all we ask of the young guys.”

Bucyrus hosts Carey Friday in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference and Crestline visits Lucas in the Mid-Buckeye League as both schools resume league play.

“We’ve got Northwood in two weeks, (Feb. 27) but really we’re just focused on Carey,” Hargis said. “We’re just focused on Friday. A big game with Carey and the last chance for our seniors to get an upset here. I thought we would already have had an upset within the league.

“We’re looking at this as our Super Bowl here. They’re tied as league champs as of now. We’re going to do some things different than we did in the first game and I think we got a shot to trip them up,” Hargis said.

The Bulldogs have some bright spots despite their record.

“Brett is really developing. He had 24 and 16 against Loudonville. Those (Bucyrus) kids are really big, and I thought Brett was still pretty good inside against them,” Webb said.

“It’s nice to see him develop. He’s a great kid and he works really hard so that’s a big positive for us going forward as a sophomore.”

Barnett also has shown potential.

“Kieran’s great going to the hoop. He’s excellent. Probably one of the better players in the area,” Webb said.

“It’s nice to put those in. But we got off to such a slow start that we never got out of our own heads.”

Box score  

Crestline      5     14       9      13 — 41

Bucyrus     22     23     20      11 — 76

Stats

Crestline (3-17): Shots 16-32; 3-pt. shots 2-7 (Kody Lawhorn, Carter Giesege); Free throws 6-12; Rebounds 13 (Brett Cheney 6); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Kody Lawhorn 3 1 8, Carter Giesege 1 0 3, Drew McCune 1 2 4, Kieran Barnett 4 3 11, Brett Cheney 7 1 15.

Bucyrus (5-14): Shots 32-53; 3-pt. shots 9-13 (Georgie Floyd 4, Demarius Munn-Page 2, Malachi Bayless 2, Tyrone Mass); Free throws 3-4; Rebounds 34 (Malachi Bayless 7, Noah Burke 6, Demarius Munn-Page 6); Turnovers 6. Scoring: Georgie Floyd 5 2 16, Demarius Munn-Page 5 0 12, Noah Burke 2 1 5, Dylan Copper 3 0 6, Jackson Farrar 2 0 4, Carter Bierce 1 0 2, Malachi Bayless 10 0 22, Tyrone Mass 1 0 3, Carson Witten 3 0 6.

JV: Bucyrus 22, Crestline 22 (2 quarters).