BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus Redmen have shown they can play with teams.

The next step is to finish what they start.

The Redmen led by two points at halftime and by as many as eight in the fourth quarter. But Buckeye Central rallied with 20 points in the fourth quarter to overtake Bucyrus, 47-43, in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.

“(Bucyrus) did a good job of taking us out of things we’ve been doing lately,” Buckeye Central coach Tom Howell said. “We went backwards in some areas tonight, but you’ve got to give them credit. They’re athletic kids. They run their stuff very well. We’re fortunate and lucky to come out of here with a win.”

With a chance to put the game away, midway through the fourth quarter, the Redmen couldn’t deliver the knockout punch.

After building a 35-28 lead on a basket by Mike Wise with 6:50 left, Bucyrus (2-9, 1-7 N10) watched as the Bucks reeled of nine straight points to assume a 36-35 lead. He Redmen committed four fouls, missed three shots, and had one turnover during the run.

“We were up eight and we told them just to slow down and get some stuff in the key because they hadn’t really fouled us yet,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “We just came and started yanking jumpers and that wasn’t a good thing.”

Buckeye Central (6-6, 4-4) eventually pushed its lead to six, the last at 45-39 on a basket by Tyler Sanderson with 1:25 to go. Sanderson and his namesake, Tyler Rose, led the fourth-quarter comeback.

Sanderson scored seven of his 10 points and Rose had eight of his 10 in the final eight minutes to bring their team all the way back.

“They hit some big free throws down at the end and they handled the ball pretty well toward the end,” Howell said. “Tyler Sanderson — I know he doesn’t start but he plays starter minutes. With him and Casey Geissman coming off the bench, it gives us a big spark.”

Sanderson hit five of six free throws down the stretch and Rose knocked down three of four. Rose also drained a clutch 3-point shot to give his team the lead for good.

“Tyler came down and made a big shot,” Egan said. “I knew as soon as he caught it and had his shoulders squared, he has enough confidence he was going to knock that down.”

Alex Kanney had 12 points — including three 3s — to lead a balanced Bucks’ attack. Rose and Sanderson each had 10. Damian Dean grabbed nine rebounds.

Wise had a game-high 17 points and six rebounds for the Redmen. Nick Middleton finished with seven points but ran the offense that had just eight turnovers.

“Nick did a good job of getting us into the offense and I thought we ran good offense,” Egan said. “Our job is to get them in position to score and we got really good situations to score and we didn’t convert when we should have.”

“Bucyrus puts some lineups on the floor that we have trouble putting our bigs on the floor because they’re playing five guards,” Howell said. “We played a lot of small tonight. We played small most of the second half really. We got our bigs in when we could.

“It was a good team win,” Howell added. “We’re going to take this and go home and rest.”

“I think at the six-minute mark, we missed five layups and that certainly didn’t help things,” Egan said. “I think that’s part of learning to play with the lead and how to try to close a game out. We haven’t been in a lot of those situations.”

Buckeye Central also squeaked out a win in the junior varsity game, 28-26. Logan Niese had 10 points to lead the Bucks and Stephen Sostakowski added seven.

Kolton Middleton topped Bucyrus with seven points and Chris Neale finished with five.

Box score

Buckeye Central       8     13        6     20 — 47

Bucyrus                       8     11      11    13 — 43

Buckeye Central (6-6, 4-4 N10): Shots 12-28; 3-pt. shots 6-12 (Alex Kanney 3, Tyler Sanderson, Tyler Rose, Casey Geissman); Free throws 17-25; Rebounds 33 (Damian Dean 9); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Casey Geissman 1 2 5, Aiden McDougal 0 2 2, Tyler Rose 2 5 10, Alex Kanney 4 1 12, Tyler Sanderson 2 5 10, Brady Kerschner 2 0 4, Damian Dean 1 2 4.

Bucyrus (2-9, 1-7 N10): Shots 16-50; 3-pt. shots 2-17; Free throws 9-14; Rebounds 24 (Mike Wise 6); Turnovers 8. Scoring: Joe Rager 0 4 4, Karson Kimmel 1 0 3, Mike Wise 7 3 17, Grady Jackson 3 0 6, Jake Hamm 1 0 2, Nick Middleton 2 2 7, Malachi Bayless 2 0 4.

JV: Buckeye Central 28-26.