BUCYRUS — Both Buckeye Central and Bucyrus have been decimated with injuries this year. And the Redmen have had some defections.

Their respective records reflected the resulting struggles on the season.

Bucyrus was looking for revenge for a 42-35 loss in New Washington in December. The Bucks were having none of it.

Buckeye Central expanded a four-point halftime lead to 13 in the third quarter, then cruised to a 55-32 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium on Phil A. Joseph Court.

Bucks’ coach Chris Moyer thought a significant factor was his team’s taking care of the ball.

“Bottom line is, we had 12 turnovers. That’s been our Achilles heel all season,” Moyer said. “If we get the ball inside, we score, but you can’t turn it over 20 times a game. We turned it over…we had us at nine in the first half and three in the second half and I thought that was the difference.”

The Bucks eked out a 13-12 advantage after one but appeared to take control of the game as the second quarter unfolded. BC went on an 11-0 run over the first 6-plus minutes of the frame to build a 24-12 lead on a basket by Hunter Caudill with 1:18 left in the half.

The Redmen, however, picked themselves off the mat. Carson Witten hit a pair of free throws for their first points of the period. Lincoln Blizzard followed with two 3-point shots in a span of 37 seconds — the second at the halftime buzzer — capping an 8-0 run to pull Bucyrus (2-11, 1-7) back within 24-20 at intermission.

Blizzard had three trifectas in the first quarter for five in the half to help keep his team in the game.

“If Linc doesn’t go hot here in the first half, we might not have gotten over 20 (for the game),” Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis said.

However, scoring droughts in both the third and fourth quarters prevented the Redmen from maintaining the momentum they had built going into the half.

Buckeye Central (2-10, 2-6) started the third quarter slowly, scoring just five points over the first five minutes. But with Bucyrus not scoring at all the 29-20 lead looked almost insurmountable.

When asked what adjustments he had made at halftime, Moyer had a quick answer.

“We found Blizzard,” he quipped. “It’s all over our scouting report and that’s things we struggle with, understanding concepts and being able to find him.

“Credit to him, knocking down five 3s in the first half,” Moyer continued. “We helped by losing him. We did a pretty nice adjustment. I think he only had only three shots in the second half.”

Caudill was the man on a heater for the Bucks. After scoring 14 points in the first half, the senior sharpshooter matched that in the final two frames for a game-high 28 points — including six 3s.

“I told the boys if Caudill scores 20, we’re definitely going to lose,” Hargis said. “I think he (darn) near outscored us by himself.

“He’s a good player. He keeps moving,” Hargis continued. “Some guys kind of relax a little when they give the ball up. That’s when he’s sometimes the most dangerous.”

The Bucks closed out the quarter on an 8-4 run to hold a 37-24 edge after three.

Buckeye Central’s 3-2 zone kept the Redmen from getting the ball to the post and getting angles to the basket. The Bucks limited Charlie Randall to eight points — all in the second half — half of which came at the foul line.

“Charlie’s electric and that’s what we talked about in the zone — not letting him (inside) because he creates havoc,” Moyer said. “He does a nice job when he gets to the middle of the paint. He’s either scoring himself or he’s going to create for somebody else. I thought for the most part, we did a good job of that.”

Bucyrus struggled to score in part because they only attempted 22 shots from the field. The BC defense and 22 Redmen turnovers largely accounted for that low total.

“They’re long. They’re long at the bottom of that (zone),” Hargis said. “They played really well.”

Blizzard finished with 16 points for Bucyrus, but only one in the second half. Randall’s eight were next and Witten had seven. Cohen Chapman had three rebounds.

“They played tough on the boards with us,” Hargis said. “They have the (Hayden) Hafner kid. He gave Witten a good matchup. He’s a big boy (6-5) and moves his feet well.”

Hafner, a freshman, totaled five points and three rebounds but was best at protecting the rim. Lane Caudill seconded Hunter with eight points and also grabbed five boards.

“I think we’re doing a god job when we get it into our big guys and obviously it opens it up for Hunter,” Moyer said. “Hunter’s our main scorer and he does a good job. But we’ve got to get people off of him because he’s going to face pressure every night. Our bigs have done a good job this season. We’ve just got to get it to them more often.”

Hargis pointed to the 22 turnovers as his team’s undoing.

“That’s what we’re doing now, 25 turnovers a game and close to 20 offensive rebounds,” Hargis said.

“It’s a game of runs and it’s a game of droughts,” he added. “We’ve been on the drought end, it seems like. Even undermanned and understaffed a little with players, we still expect competition.”

“We’ve been losing the possession battle all season,” Moyer said. “It was nice to come out on the right side of it, and we got a win because of that.”

“We played with a little more energy today, played all the way to the buzzer,” Hargis said. “Kudos to Coach Moyer. We were their only two wins now. We knew we were going to get their best battle. We really didn’t respond from the get-go. If Linc doesn’t hit five 3s, we’re down 20 at half.”

Buckeye Central also won the junior varsity game, 55-32. Blaise Metzger led the Bucks with 11 points and Owen Deppen added 10. Micah Spears topped Bucyrus with 10.

Box score

Buckeye Central     13        11       13      18 — 55

Bucyrus                   12          8          4        8 — 32

Stats

Buckeye Central (2-10, 2-6): Shots 22-40; 3-pt. shots 6-12 (Hunter Caudill 6); Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 20 (Lane Caudill 5); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Hunter Caudill 11 0 28, Donnie Fourtner 1 0 2, Isaiah Kaiser 2 0 4, Madden Alt 1 0 2, Jeremiah Fishpaw 2 2 6, Lane Caudill 3 2 8, Hayden Hafner 2 1 5.

Bucyrus (2-11, 1-7 N10): Shots 9-22; 3-pt. shots 5-13 (Lincoln Blizzard 5); Free throws 9-18; Rebounds 14 (Cohen Chapman 3); Turnovers 22. Scoring: Charlie Randall 2 4 8, Lincoln Blizzard 5 1 16, Carson Witten 2 3 7, Quin Ross  0 1 1.

JV: Buckeye Central 33-27.