By Dan Messerschmidt
BUCYRUS — Bucyrus started three sophomores, a junior and a senior against a veteran Carey lineup.
For the first two quarters, the young Redmen more than held their own.
But the Blue Devils — trailing by four at halftime — exploded for 29 third quarter points to beat Bucyrus going away, 70-50, in a Northern 10 Conference game at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“They have a lot of youth, but they play hard,” Carey coach Jamie Young said. “We have veteran kids. Our experience took over.”
The upstart Redmen ran off to a 9-0 lead to start the game, getting points from four different players. The Blue Devils helped by missing three shots and committing two turnovers.
“It feels like that all the time,” Bucyrus coach Justin Mattix said. “We get into a really nice flow, but we can’t sustain it.”
The Redmen kept the nine-point margin for the quarter, leading 16-7 at period’s end.
Bucyrus (2-18, 1-14 N10) got a 3-point play from Ryan Evans to open the second quarter and a basket by Lucas Kozinski to give the Redmen their largest lead of the night at 21-7.
Then Carey (14-6, 9-6) began to chip away. An 8-0 run, capped by Trey Bame’s 3-point shot, brought the Blue Devils back to within 21-15. Bucyrus withstood the onslaught, but the lead was down to 30-26 by intermission.
“The ball finds energy and that’s why Bucyrus was ahead,” Young said. “The second group (subs) that I put in tried to do what we were supposed to do.”
The Redmen clung to the lead until the 5:45 mark of the third quarter when Bame’s basket tied it at 32-32. From there, it was all Blue Devils.
Carey outscored Bucyrus, 29-9, in the third quarter to open a 55-39 bulge after three.
“We stopped making shots and they started making them,” Mattix said. “We had to keep doing the things that got us (the lead) and we forgot how. That’s all youth.”
To Mattix’ point, the Redmen hit just three of 12 shots in the third quarter after going 13 of 27 in the first half. Conversely, the Blue Devils made more shots (12) in the third period than they did in the first half (10).
From there, it was just a matter of the final score. Carey held a 15-11 edge in the fourth quarter to establish the 20-point margin.
“I reminded them at halftime that we had only beaten them by nine at home,” Young said. “I challenged them to go out and act like the team that is supposed to win.”
Carey had nine players score in all. Bame led all scorers with 16 points. Hayden Stone had 12 as did Cody Luzader — including his 1000th career point — and Casey Crawford came off the bench with 10. Bame had five rebounds.
Kyle Hamm and Kozinski each had 11 points to top Bucyrus. Kozinski and Evans had six rebounds each and Hamm added five. The Redmen had a 31-28 edge on the glass.
“Ben (Seibert) and Hammy did a nice job on the boards,” Mattix said. “We just couldn’t keep the offense going.”
“League games on the road are tough,” Young said. “If you don’t come out playing hard, it’s a big difference.”
“We act surprised when we’re up rather than (thinking) we should be up,” Mattix said. “We knew they could score a lot of points. We just need to be patient in our offense.”
Carey also won the junior varsity game, 73-39. Payton Young had 15 for the Blue Devils and Cade Crawford added 14. Caleb Chapman led Bucyrus with 14.
Carey 7 19 29 15 — 70
Bucyrus 16 14 9 11 — 50
Carey: (14-6, 9-6 N10): Shots 28-60; 3-pt. shots 9-20 (Trey Bame 2, Logan Smiley 2, Casey Crawford 2, Cody Luzader, Austin Hertel, Jordan Dasher); Free throws 5-10; Rebounds 28 (Trey Bame 5); Turnovers 14. Scoring: Austin Hertel 1 0 3, Jordan Dasher 1 0 3, Brayden Wentling 1 0 2, Trey Bame 6 2 16, Logan Smiley 2 0 6, Hayden Stone 6 0 12, Cody Luzader 5 1 12, Casey Crawford 4 0 10, Griffin Summit 2 2 6.
Bucyrus: (2-18, 1-14 N10): Shots 21-48; 3-pt. shots 4-16 (Ryan Evans, Dylan Goff, Lucas Kozinski, Harley Robinson); Free throws 4-5; Rebounds 31 (Ryan Evans 6, Lucas Kozinski 6); Turnovers 23. Scoring: Harley Robinson 1 0 3, Jaylen Zehner 2 0 4, Ben Seibert 3 2 8, Ryan Evans 3 1 8, Lucas Kozinski 5 0 11, Dylan Goff 2 0 5, Kyle Hamm 5 1 11.
JV: Carey 73-39.
Twitter: @TF_Schmidt
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