By Dan Messerschmidt
NORTH ROBINSON — Colonel Crawford had high expectations entering the season.
Bucyrus is still finding its way.
Colonel Crawford jumped out to an early lead, weathered a third quarter rally by the Redmen, then pulled away to a 65-39 Northern 10 Conference victory at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
“They made a run in the third quarter,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “We took it one possession at a time. That’s what you have to do to win in this league.”
Bucyrus (2-15, 1-11 N10) kept up in the opening minutes, scoring the first five points on a basket by Gram Dick and a 3-point shot by Ryan Evans. The Eagles answered with a 16-6 run to the end of the quarter — with six different players scoring — to lead 16-11 after one.
Five Bucyrus turnovers aided the Colonel Crawford (15-3, 12-1) cause.
“It seems like a bunch of our mistakes are clumped together,” Bucyrus coach Justin Mattix said. “It leads to runs by the other team but that comes with our style of play.”
The Eagles scored the first 10 points of the second quarter and Brody Martin registered seven of his game-high 17 points in the frame to help his team to a 36-19 halftime lead and the rout appeared to be on.
The Redmen had other ideas. With 3s from Lucas Kozinski and Dylan Goff, and a solid defensive effort, Bucyrus trimmed the deficit to 42-33 by the end of the third quarter.
“They shoot 36 percent from behind the 3-point line,” Sheldon said of the Redmen. “You have to play good one-on-one defense and not gamble, or they get the ball to one of their shooters.”
“It’s good that we can say something good about our defense,” Mattix said. “The kids are kind of buying in to our defensive scheme. The guys who are playing are the guys who are competing for us.”
The Eagles reignited the offense in the fourth quarter, exploding for 23 points as they pulled away to the win. Harley Shaum led the way with 10 of his 16 points coming in the final period.
Martin’s 17 points and Shaum’s 16 topped Colonel Crawford. Shaum also grabbed 10 rebounds. The Eagles hit 19 of 21 free throws.
“That comes from us attacking the rim,” Sheldon said of the free throws. “We thought we had some size mismatches. The guards took it off the dribble and the players did it on the block. We struggled in the third quarter. We got good looks, they just didn’t go in.”
Evans had 10 points and Goff added eight for Bucyrus. Ben Seibert and Jaylen Zehner had seven boards apiece.
“We did a good job on (Cameron) McCreary, holding him to nine points,” Mattix said. “Ryan and Jaylen (Zehner) did a good job defensively on him. But Martin has 17 and Shaum had 16. They have other guys who can score.”
“That’s a luxury we have with four guys averaging double figures,” Sheldon said. “We don’t have to rely on one person to score for us.”
“We competed tonight,” Mattix said. “We didn’t shoot well but if we keep competing, wins will come eventually.”
“I was happy with our defense tonight,” Sheldon said. “To hold them to 39 points is good. We did a great job of containing their shooters.”
Colonel Crawford also won the junior varsity game, 61-33. Jacob Maley had 17 points for the Eagles, while Chase Walker had 12 and Zye Shipman added 10.
Trevor Ley dropped in 14 to lead Bucyrus.
Bucyrus 11 8 14 6 — 39
Colonel Crawford 16 20 6 23 — 65
Bucyrus: (2-15, 1-11 N10): Shots 16-53; 3-pt. shots 5-19 (Dylan Goff 2, Ryan Evans 2, Lucas Kozinski); Free throws 2-3; Rebounds 31 (Ben Seibert 7, Jaylen Zehner 7); Turnovers 17. Scoring: Gram Dick 1 0 2, Jaylen Zehner 2 0 4, Ben Seibert 3 0 6, Ryan Evans 4 0 10, Lucas Kozinski 2 0 5, Kade Slagle 1 0 2, Dylan Goff 2 2 8, Kyle Hamm 1 0 2.
Colonel Crawford: (15-3, 12-1 N10): Shots 21-50; 3-pt. shots 4-15 (Brody Martin 2, Cameron McCreary, Gavin Feichtner); Free throws 19-21; Rebounds 36 (Harley Shaum 10); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Reis Walker 1 2 4, Jordan Fenner 3 1 7, Cameron McCreary 4 0 9, Zye Shipman 0 2 2, Brody Martin 4 7 17, Gavin Feichtner 1 0 3, Hayden Bute 1 5 7, Harley Shaum 7 2 16.
JV: Colonel Crawford 61-33.