BUCYRUS — Bucyrus coach Barry Egan expressed his frustration with his basketball team Tuesday night.
Egan watched as the Riverdale Falcons knocked down five 3-point shots in the first period and held a 22-13 lead. From that point, the Redmen were forced to play catch-up for the rest of the game.
Twice, Bucyrus was able to cut the Falcons’ lead to one in the second half, but both times, Riverdale was able to make big shots in crucial times and came away with a 59-51 win over the Redmen.
Riverdale improved to 5-16 on the season, while the Redmen fell to 3-17. Bucyrus has two regular-season games remaining, hosting Seneca East on Friday and Crestview Saturday.
Egan’s frustration showed after the game.
“If there’s a way to find out how not to be successful, we certainly find it,” Egan said. “Whether it be by shot selection, a turnover, a lack of execution and I don’t even want to get into how to guard.
“(Riverdale’s) shot chart was all over the middle, just basic ball jumping and sitting down and not letting them go to the basket,” Egan added.
The Falcons jumped out quickly, hitting nine of 17 shots in the first quarter, en route to hitting 23 of 49 shots for the game. Conversely, the Redmen knocked down 21 of 57 shots.
“Hats off to the guys,” Riverdale coach Craig Taylor said. “They came out ready to play. It’s always nice when the shots start falling. We moved the ball well. We told them Saturday night the ball has to have rhythm if you want to make shots. We had rhythm in the first quarter, and in the fourth quarter, we spread them out and hit some shots.
“We just have to work on defending a little bit, we’re getting better.”
Bucyrus did manage to trim the Riverdale lead to 34-33 with 5:16 in the third quarter on a Mike Wise three-point play, but the Falcons responded with back-to-back layups from Spencer Dodds and Lane Morris, quickly taking the lead back to five.
The Redmen also got the first points of the fourth period on a Grady Jackson three-point play, but the Redmen didn’t score again for four minutes until Malachi Bayless knocked down a 3. But Riverdale used a Jayden Taylor 3 and a Carson Young 3 to hold the Redmen off.
Riverdale got outstanding balance, as eight players reached the scoring column, led by Brayden Courtney’s 19. Taylor finished with 11 and Thomas Miller added 10.
“That’s been the key to our team since we’ve taken over,” Taylor said. “We don’t want a 30-point scorer, and Thomas has been that this year. I would rather have five or six guys score eight points. It was nice to see that tonight.
Braydon was pretty hot, and the rest of the team was pretty balanced.”
The Falcons held a 32-28 lead at the half and a 44-40 lead entering the final quarter.
Egan said that his team didn’t get good shots consistently.
“We throw shots up that have no rhyme or reason,” Egan said. “When we’re around, we have a situation where we want to take the last shot and we end up shooting it before the half and they end up getting a run-out and a layup and it takes the lead to five instead of us getting a basket or not getting a basket and there’s a big difference between three and five when it comes to us.”
Wise paced the Redmen with 18 points and Bayless added 14.
Taylor felt his defense got better as the game went on.
“We started off pretty bad,” Taylor said. “We’re getting better. Right now, we’re not taking away strong hands. We rebounded well, we switched to a zone, and I think that was effective for us. We identified shooters and I think that really helped.
“If we had played man-to-man the whole game, I think Bucyrus would have won.”
Defensively, the Redmen played mostly zone in the first half, but Egan switched to more man-to-man in the second.
“(Riverdale) made most of their 3s in the first half, we just thought if we stayed in that, that’s what they’re gonna do, and we didn’t want the tempo to be all that slow, but you pick your poison with them.
“Craig spreads them out and does a nice job with them and it’s just very frustrating,” Egan added.
Bucyrus won the junior varsity game, 51-24.
Box score
Riverdale 22 10 12 15 — 59
Bucyrus 13 15 12 11 — 51
Riverdale (5-16): Shots 24-49; 3-pt. shots 7 (Jayden Taylor 3, Thomas Miller, Brayden Courtney, Spencer Dodds, Carson Young); Free throws 6-14; Rebounds 28; Turnovers 13. Scoring: Thomas Miller 4 1 10, Brayden Courtney 7 4 19, Daniel Donaldson 1 0 2, Spencer Dodds 4 0 9, Lane Morris 2 1 5, Carson Young 1 0 3, Jayden Taylor 4 0 11.
Bucyrus (3-17): Shots 21-57; 3-pt. shots 5 (Malachi Bayless 2, Kolton Middleton 2, Eddie Dagher); Free throws 8-11; Rebounds 27 (Grady Jackson 6); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Eddie Dagher 1 1 4, Mike Wise 8 2 18, Grady Jackson 2 1 5, Kolton Middleton 2 0 6, Malachi Bayless 6 0 14.
JV: Bucyrus 51-24.