BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus bench has been short much of the season.

It got even shorter over the course of the Redmen’s game against Carey Saturday. That did not bode well against the Blue Devils and 6-foot-8 post Hayden Stone.

The Redmen lost the Northern 10 Athletic Conference game, 56-42, at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium. But hope rose from the ashes of the loss.

“A couple of kids who really haven’t gotten into a rhythm this year stepped up tonight,” Bucyrus coach Justin Mattix said. “Kenton (Lutz) goes and gets 15 (points) and Zane (Seybert) hits a 3. The guys who were on the floor for us the majority of the game stepped into their roles. We played five guys most of the game.”

Leading scorer Harley Robinson-Koge sat much of the first quarter with two fouls, played the second then left the game in the third with an ankle injury.

“Bucyrus came out and got after it,” Carey coach Jamie Young said. “Even when we had them down, they didn’t stop fighting. (Jaylen) Zehner was in there battling and Harley went down. Then Lutz picked it up. As a coach, that’s what you want.”

Carey (7-4, 5-2 N10) went on an 11-0 run to start the game, hitting four of seven shots from the floor. The Blue Devils’ shooting success, especially early, was the difference in the game.

“The big thing is, we didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” Mattix said. “You’re not going to win very many games if you don’t shoot the ball well. A lot of the shots we had were pressured by them. We didn’t really get a clean look at the rim.”

The Redmen were four of 17 in the first quarter and eight of 28 for the first half. The Blue Devils had exactly the same number of shots, but made 14, in building a 34-17 lead by halftime.

“We came out and got some 3s to go down,” Young said. “They were really trying to take away Hayden, which they did a good job, I felt, of pushing him off the block, then they double-and-triple teamed him when he did catch the ball. We hit some shots early and that helped to alleviate some of that pressure.”

While Bucyrus (2-10, 2-6) faced an uphill climb, the Iron Man 5 managed to hang around.

The Redmen lost three more points to the lead in the third quarter to go down, 49-29, but the deficit never got worse. Lutz scored all 15 of his team-high points in the second half to keep Bucyrus afloat.

“Those five guys (Lutz, Seybert, Nic Middleton, Dylan Goff and Kyle Hamm) did their jobs today,” Mattix said. “They were down 20 at one point. These kids kept it close. We cut the lead a little bit.”

A 13-7 advantage in the fourth quarter allowed the Redmen to trim the difference to the final 14-point spread.

Despite Bucyrus’ best defensive efforts, Stone finished with a game-high 20 points, 18 of which came in the first half. He also grabbed 13 rebounds. Griffin Summit added 17 points.

Hamm had 13 points and 11 rebounds in support of Lutz’ 15 points for the Redmen.

“They’re not having the best year but that’s a step in the right direction regardless of the outcome of this game,” Young said. “If they can just build on that, they’ll be OK.”

“We defended late-clock situations pretty well today,” Mattix said. “But there were a couple times we went to sleep and got beat backdoor. Those things are killers, especially when you’re trying to make a run. It hurts momentum.”

“They were the aggressors in the second half especially,” Young said. “They outscored us by three points in the second half. They played gritty basketball.”

Carey swept the night with a 49-33 win in the junior varsity game. Ian Yeater led the Blue Devils with 10 points. Grady Jackson had 11 for Bucyrus and Spencer Huff added nine.

Box score

Carey        18    16     15      7 — 56

Bucyrus     9       8     12    13 — 42

Carey (7-4, 5-2 N10): Shots 22-56; 3-pt. shots 2-10 (Griffin Summit); Free throws 10-17; Rebounds 36 (Hayden Stone 13); Turnovers 14. Scoring: Austin Hertel 2 0 4, Jordan Dasher 2 1 5, Hayden Stone 9 2 20, Isaiah Hoepf 1 1 3, Cade Crawford 2 1 5, Casey Crawford 1 0 2, Griffin Summit 5 5 17.

Bucyrus (2-10, 2-6 N10): Shots 16-52; 3-pt. shots 1-8 (Zane Seybert); Free throws 7-11; Rebounds 35 (Kyle Hamm 11); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Zane Seybert 1 0 3, Jaylen Zehner 3 1 7, Kenton Lutz 6 3 15, Dylan Goff 2 0 4, Kyle Hamm 5 3 13.

JV: Carey 49-33.