BUCYRUS — It was a game fitting of two evenly-matched teams.
Bucyrus and Galion girls had each one just one game coming into their county rivalry renewal. Statistically, it was a virtual draw.
Galion made two more 3-point shots to make the difference in a 46-40 victory for the Lady Tigers in a non-league game at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
Poor shooting — something that has plagued the Lady Redmen all year — ultimately proved to be Bucyrus’ undoing.
“We could not finish at the rim,” Bucyrus coach Taylor Tackett said. “It also hurt we didn’t get to the free throw line as much as we typically do. When we did, we made the all (6 of 6). Get to the line a few more times, hit a couple more layups, especially in that third quarter coming out, it could have been a totally different game.”
The Redmen hit just 15 of 67 shots for the game, including two of 12 in the pivotal fourth quarter. Galion coach Shani Rush pointed to her team’s defense as the difference in the outcome.
“I told them at the beginning of the game defense is going to win it,” Rush said. “We have to limit our mistakes, make less than they do, and we have to play defense. In the fourth quarter, I thought our girls picked up the intensity on defense and that got us ahead.”
Neither team led by more than eight points in the game and Bucyrus (1-18) led at two quarter breaks.
The first quarter gave a glimpse of the how the contest would unfold with the teams battling to a 9-9 deadlock. The final basket of the first half gave the Redmen a 20-19 at intermission, concluding a back-and-forth second period.
One nemesis that did not haunt Bucyrus in the first half — or the game — was turnovers. The Redmen had only four miscues at halftime and nine for the game.
“That is definitely a positive progression,” We started (the season) turning the ball over a lot. We’ve been taking care of it a lot better lately, which is good.”
Taking care of the ball helped offset a Galion (2-16) rebound advantage in the first half. The Tigers turned it over 13 times (-9) but had a 23-16 edge on the boards.
“I felt like we were trying to dribble with a flat ball,” Rush said. “That’s what I told them at halftime, we’ve got to clean up. It was just so sloppy, and we were just making careless mistakes, just not handling the ball.”
The Redmen built their biggest lead of the night at five points, 26-21, on a basket by Karmyn Blizzard, but it was her last points of the game. The Tigers began trying to take away both Blizzard and Caleigh Rister from Bucyrus.
“They started face-guarding our two ball-handlers,” Tackett said. “We kind of had to switch up a little bit. Taisha (Spears) and Maddie (Kimmel) handled the ball after that, stepped up and did what they needed to do.”
Bucyrus still had a 33-30 lead after three quarters but a 16-7 fourth period swung the advantage to Galion. All five Tigers that scored in the game contributed in the final frame.
Galion went on an 11-0 run over a three-minute span in the fourth quarter to take a 43-35 with 3:21 to go and the Redmen never recovered.
A key shot in the run was a 3 by Morgan Kimble, her only field goal of the game.
“It was a momentum changer,” Rush said. “We weren’t playing well. (Teanna) Greter — her leg was hurting her; her ankle’s been hurting her — she was limping around and she’s our motor. When she’s not moving, we’re not moving. She started feeling a little bit better, she got a little pop in her step there at the end.”
Greter finished with co-scoring honors with 17 points, shared by teammate Natalie Perkins, who also grabbed 12 rebounds.
Blizzard topped Bucyrus with 12 points and Rister had 10. Kimmel picked up some of the scoring slack with eight points and Skylene Alvarez — in just her second game of the year — hit a pair of 3s. Blizzard, Rister and Taylor Myers each had eight rebounds.
“(Skylene) hit a couple of shots,” Tackett said. “Coming in, senior night maybe hyped her up a little bit. Hopefully, that’s a confidence booster for he and she continues to grow from that throughout this year. It kind of stinks she’s a senior because she’s in a groove now. I hope she finishes out the season strong.”
“All wins are big wins for us,” Rush said. “There’s games on our calendar that we know we can come in and compete. We play in such a tough league (MOAC), it’s brutal. Sometimes I’s nice to have a nice, competitive game.
“Bucyrus, they did a nice job tonight,” she added. “I thought some of their girls hit some big shots. So, it was a good game.”
“We looked kind of dead tonight, I thought, not as energetic, not ready to move our feet on defense,” Tackett said. “We’ve really been focusing on our defense this week, ball pressure with help-side. We looked worn down more than normal.”
Box score
Galion 9 10 11 16 — 46
Bucyrus 9 11 13 7 — 40
Galion (2-16): Shots 17-41; 3-pt. shots 6-12 (Natalie Perkins 3, Teanna Greter 2, Morgan Kimble); Free throws 6-20; Rebounds 42 (Natalie Perkins 12); Turnovers 19. Scoring: Heaven Phelps 1 3 5, Dezi Lester 1 1 3, Teanna Greter 7 1 17, Natalie Perkins 7 0 17, Morgan Kimble 1 1 4.
Bucyrus (1-18): Shots 15-67; 3-pt. shots 4-14 (Skylene Alvarez 2, Karmyn Blizzard 2); Free throws 6-6; Rebounds 41 (Caleigh Rister 8, Karmyn Blizzard 8, Taylor Myers 8); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Skylene Alvarez 2 0 6, Caleigh Rister 3 4 10, Karmyn Blizzard 5 0 12, Maddie Kimmel 4 0 8, Sierra Frost 1 0 2, Taylor Myers 0 2 2.