BUCYRUS (Crawford County Now) — It was a stellar weekend for Galion boys basketball.
After their 66-57 over Ontario Friday night, the Tigers went on the road and took care of cross-county rival Bucyrus 70-51 in a makeup nonleague game Saturday night on the Phil A. Joseph Court inside Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
Seventeen Redmen turnovers resulted in a long night for Bucyrus (1-15) and Galion doubled its win total in a two-day period to lift its record to 4-11.
“We have some good, young, talented ball players and some older guys who work their tails off. It was just fun to watch them all play well together tonight,” Galion head coach Tyler Sanders said.
“You never know after a big conference win like last night and you come over to play a team that’s struggling, you never know how your kids are going to respond. But I was really proud of them.”
Parker Tinch came off the bench to score 15 points and sophomore teammates Jameson Glew and Dominic Capretta added 12 and 11, respectively. Capretta grabbed 5 rebounds.
Tinch had a trio of 3s as Galion hit on 7-of-22 from beyond the arc. Bucyrus was just 2-of-11, both coming from Georgie Floyd.
The Tigers scored 11 points off 6 Bucyrus turnovers to open the game with a 13-2 lead.
“We haven’t started well the last four or five games. We dig a hole, and we got to try and fill it back in. They came out and played hard and we knew they were a little bit quicker and had the freedom to shoot the three ball,” Bucyrus head coach Brian Hargis said.
“We kind of gave it up there in the first quarter. A lot of unforced turnovers and that’s kind of been our MO.”
Bucyrus fell behind 20-7 after that period and trailed 34-23 at halftime.
Floyd led Bucyrus with 14 points and 6 rebounds.
Demaris Munn-Page added 13 and 9 rebounds and Dylan Coppler 12 points, 6 boards and 3 assists. Nine of Coppler’s points came in the final 8 minutes.
“We knew they were good shooters. We just can’t stay in front of anybody. We get back slow. Everybody knows it at this point, and I think we’ve been exploited 8 of the last 10 games on transition defense,” Hargis said.
The Redmen cut the deficit to 10 at 37-27 early in the third quarter before Quin Miller converted a turnover into a basket. The Tigers pushed back out to a 41-27 lead and eventually to 56-35 after three quarters.
Galion has scored 66, 63, 67 and 70 points in its last four contests.
“We’re finally being more aggressive and attacking the rim,” Sanders said. “And we’re figuring out the speed of varsity basketball. Now we’re putting the ball in the hoops. If we can play the defense that we played early in the season with that, we can build ourselves a nice little run heading into the tournament.”
Several Galion reserves stepped up as well.
Colton Flynn scored 7 points, Jaxon Manley 4 and 4 rebounds, Christian Bare 4 points, a pair of rebounds, and a steal.
“Our group of seniors are five of the most unselfish kids. Tonight, it was fun to reward them with some good minutes and watch them succeed. To double our win total in two nights and to my kids’ credit they come to practice and work hard and grind it out.”
As a team the Tigers recorded 10 steals from 8 different players. Eleven players scored of the 12 who saw time on the court.
Both teams shot well, hitting on 46% from the floor. Bucyrus was 23-of-50 and Galion was 26-of-56.
“It just comes down to the turnovers,” Hargis said. “It’s a defensive problem right now. They found the shooters really well, especially in transition. Coach Sanders does a good job of running to the line and they shoot with confidence.”
The third quarter has been troubling for Bucyrus all season.
“We knew they’d turn the tempo up in the third quarter and I don’t think we’ve won the third quarter all year. Those first three or four minutes just have been kryptonite for us,” Hargis said.
Galion hosts Clear Fork Monday in a Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference game.
Bucyrus returns to Northern 10 Athletic Conference play hosting league leading Colonel Crawford on Thursday.
Box score
Galion 20 14 22 14 — 70
Bucyrus 7 16 12 16 — 51
Stats
Galion (4-11): Shots 26-56; 3-pt. shots 7-22 (Parker Tinch 3, Jameson Glew, Dominic Capretta, Colton Flynn, Quin Miller); Free throws 11-20; Rebounds 28 (Dominic Capretta 5); Turnovers 8. Scoring: Jameson Glew 4 3 12, Dominic Capretta 5 0 11, Colton Flynn 3 0 7, Parker Tinch 5 2 15, Brant Walker 0 1 1, Weston Clark 1 1 3, Christian Bare 2 2 4, Jack Rinehart 1 0 2, Quin Miller 2 1 6, Max Albert 2 1 5, Jaxon Manley 2 0 4.
Bucyrus (1-15): Shots 23-50; 3-pt. shots 2-11 (Georgie Floyd 2); Free throws 3-6; Rebounds 31 (Demaris Munn-Page 9); Turnovers 17. Scoring: Demarius Munn-Page 6 1 13, Lincoln Blizzard 2 0 5, Georgie Floyd 6 0 14, Dylan Coppler 5 2 12, Carson Witten 4 0 8, Carter Bierce 1 0 2, Da’Shawn Cosey 1 0 2.
JV: Galion won.