NORTH ROBINSON — The game was over almost before it started.

Colonel Crawford employed full-court pressure to force eight first quarter Bucyrus turnovers. The Eagles translated the miscues into 25 points then cruised to a 62-34 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win at Mac Morrison Gymnasium Saturday night.

“We wanted to put some pressure on them to get some easy baskets,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “And we did a good job getting out in transition.”

Before the Redmen knew what hit them, they were trailing 25-4 after the first quarter. Bucyrus (2-4, 1-3 N10) matched baskets — but not points — early on. Dylan Coppler and Georgie Floyd hit two-point baskets.

But Peyton Baker and Brayden Holt each hit a 3 to lead 6-4. From there, the Eagles went on a 19-0 run to period’s end and a 25-4 advantage. They were never threatened after that.

“It’s all self-inflicted,” Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis said. “They’re a good team, but we beat ourselves in the first quarter. We’re not good enough to dig it out.”

The Redmen committed six more errors in the second quarter. Payne DeGray inflicted most of the damage, scoring 10 of his 13 points in the frame, helping Colonel Crawford (4-0, 2-0) to a 42-15 halftime lead.

“What are you going to take away? Are you going to let Payne shoot 15 layups at 90 percent?” Hargis said. “I thought we did a pretty good job against Payne.”

Utilizing a 1-3-1 zone defense, the Redmen kept the ball away from DeGray for the most part. But the Eagles’ other weapons took advantage.

“There’s so many options,” Sheldon said. “Peyton Baker hits a couple of big 3s. (Tyler) Lash (five points) gives us good minutes and Parker Weithman. The Brayden does what he does. That’s how we have to play depending on how defenses play us night in and night out.”

Colonel Crawford got the game to a running clock briefly when Holt hit a 3 to make it 55-19 with 2:33 left in the third quarter.

Bucyrus got the running clock stopped on a pair of baskets by Coppler to start the fourth quarter, but the coach wasn’t overwhelmed.

“We were playing their jayvees. They put their jayvees in the third quarter,” Hargis said. “That’s never a good sign. Did we execute better later in the game? Yeah, but we’re not playing a varsity team.”

The opportunity to rest his starters was welcomed by Sheldon.

“Three games in four days,” Sheldon said. “We sat them in the fourth quarter, which is good because we’re trying to save legs. We’re still trying to get basketball legs. We’re not close to where we need to be.”

The third game in that stretch is powerful Margaretta (8-0) on Monday, which is strategic.

“Monday night — this is one of the best teams in the state of Ohio,” Sheldon said of the Polar Bears. “These are the non-leagues we try to schedule in this program to get us ready come March.”

Holt ended with a game-high 20 points and DeGray was second with his 13. Holt and Walker Cramer had five rebounds each. Nine different Eagles scored.

Both coaches lauded the play of Coppler, who led Bucyrus with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

“Coppler played his butt off even after tweaking his knee,” Hargis said. “He’s done that all year. It’s just about finishing at the rim. He did that very, very well tonight against some pretty strong kids at the rim.”

“I thought the Coppler kid plays hard no matter what the score is,” Sheldon said. “He’s been a good 4-year program player for Bucyrus.”

Floyd was held to eight points on the night.

“He’s a really nice player and that was our focus,” Sheldon said. “We really tried to take him out.”

“Strength won tonight,” Hargis said. “That’s a good team. But we came out (down) 25-4 in the first. You’re not crawling back on these guys.”

“I think the most impressive thing tonight, with our first seven rotation, is we had one turnover through three quarters,” Sheldon said.

The Eagles finished with only three turnovers for the game.

“Hopefully, the whole Crawford County community comes out here and sees two good teams going at it come Monday night in North Robinson,” Sheldon said.

Colonel Crawford also won the junior varsity game, 35-11. Hayden Spears led the Eagles with 15 points. Cohen Chapman had six for Bucyrus.

Box score    

Bucyrus                        4       11         7      12 — 34

Colonel Crawford     25       17       13        7 — 62

Stats

Bucyrus (2-4, 1-3 N10): Shots 14-36; 3-pt. shots 3-9 (Georgie Floyd 2, Lincoln Blizzard); Free throws 3-7; Rebounds 25 (Dylan Coppler 11); Turnovers 20. Scoring: Lincoln Blizzard 1 0 3, Georgie Floyd 3 0 8, Cohen Chapman 1 0 2, Dylan Coppler 8 3 19, Quin Ross 1 0 2.

Colonel Crawford (4-0, 2-0 N10): Shots 25-59; 3-pt. shots 6-21 (Peyton Baker 2, Brayden Holt 2, Tyler Lash, Hayden Spears); Free throws 6-11; Rebounds 31 (Walker Cramer 5, Brayden Holt 5); Turnovers 3. Scoring: Walker Cramer 2 1 5, Parker Weithman 1 0 2, Peyton Baker 2 0 6, Tyler Lash 2 0 5, John DeGray 3 0 6, Wyatt Spiegel 1 0 2, Brayden Holt 8 2 20, Hayden Spears 1 0 3, Payne DeGray 5 3 13.

JV: Colonel Crawford 35-11.