By Dan Messerschmidt

Ryan Evans scored 30 points for Bucyrus in the Redmen’s 68-64 win over Riverdale on Saturday.

In the context of Bucyrus basketball, it was historic. Thirty-point games haven’t exactly grown on trees at Bucyrus. Evans’ feat was only the 28th time a Redmen player has registered at least 30 points in the over 100-year history of Bucyrus hoops.

The senior guard was just the 17th different player to score 30 or more. Six players have accomplished it at least twice in a Redmen uniform.

Prior to Saturday, the last 30-point game for Bucyrus came on Feb. 28, 2006 when Kyle Teynor scored 33 in a 63-55 loss to Seneca East in a sectional tournament final. Teynor had also scored 30 earlier that season, ironically in another loss, 69-62, at Crestline.

Alex Kish — for whom the Bucyrus gymnasium is named — was the first to hit the 30 mark when he dropped 36 on Bellevue in a 64-41 victory on December 17, 1927.

No one else joined the club until Jim Gallant scored 31 against Willard on February 3, 1948, over 20 years later.

In the decade of the 1950s, Dan Bumstead (’52-53), Glenn Butterman (’53-54), Dave Katterhenrich (’58-59) and Bill Elder twice (’58-59) turned the trick.

In what can now be considered the Golden Age of scoring in Bucyrus hardwood history — the decade of the 1960s — the Redmen piled up 10 more 30-point efforts.

One man, the legendary Jim Kirkham — the best player in school and maybe county history — accounted for seven of them, including the most points in a game, 44, in a 111-108 double overtime loss to Galion on January 28, 1966.

John Seele did it twice, with 31 on January 27, 1967 at Shelby and 39 on February 23, 1968 in a 68-67 tournament win over Ontario. Tom Blair dropped 32 on Crestline in 1966.

Gary Kennedy had two of three 30-point efforts in the 70s. He piled up 35 in a 78-72 win at Norwalk in a game that lasted four overtimes on December 12, 1970 and he finished the regular season with 33 at Galion on February 19, 1971. Gary Weber had the other with 30 points at Shelby in 1974.

In the only 30-point performance of the 1980s, Cliff Hetzel pulled it off in an 88-65 Bucyrus victory at Upper Sandusky in 1985. In the 90s, Kade Dillon (twice), Jay Baker and Brad Mitchel exceeded 30 in a game.

Suffice to say, Ryan Evans entered rarefied air in Bucyrus basketball scoring annals. Can he become the seventh Redman to do it multiple times? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, Bucyrus fans should savor this. If history is an accurate predictor of the future, this happens only once in a blue moon.