By Dan Messerschmidt
BASCOM — Bucyrus coach Justin Mattix was hoping Western Reserve would have an off-shooting night.
The Roughriders had anything but.
Western Reserve connected on 10 of 18 3-point shots in the first half, building a 19-point lead en route to an 86-59 victory over the Redmen in the opening round of the Division III sectional tournament at Hopewell-Loudon High School.
The Roughriders earned the right to face Carey in the sectional final Friday, back at Hopewell-Loudon. The Blue Devils defeated Wynford, 64-41, in the nightcap on Wednesday.
“That’s a really good team,” Mattix said. “They shoot well from the outside. They hit tough shots, go on runs and get in a rhythm.”
Western Reserve (15-6) set the tone early, hitting five of seven attempts from 3 to roll out to a 24-12 first-quarter lead. Braden Hood and Aiden Markley drilled two each from beyond the arc.
“That’s what we do, we shoot the basketball,” Western Reserve coach Chris Sheldon said. “If you stop one guy, another one is open. We’ve got good shooters and they shoot with confidence.”
The Hood and Markley duo accounted for five more 3s in a 19-point second quarter for the Roughriders. Bucyrus (3-20) got six points from Kyle Hamm but the Redmen went to the locker room trailing 43-24.
“They got the early lead and that makes it easy for them,” Mattix said. “If we go on a run, they still have a big lead. We went on a 10-0 run and we were still behind by 16 points.”
Bucyrus kept up offensively much better in the second half, but the Redmen could never make serious inroads into the deficit. Senior Ryan Evans scored 10 of his team-high 21 points in the third quarter enabling his team to stay within 62-44 by period’s end.
“In the first half, our defense put a lot of pressure on the ball,” Sheldon said. “It disrupted their offense. It didn’t create a lot of turnovers, but they forced shots which allowed us to get out in transition.”
Both teams began clearing the benches in the fourth quarter, but the offenses perked on. Seven different Western Reserve players piled up 24 points for the Roughriders and six Bucyrus players totaled 15 points in the final period.
“We have to do a better job on defense,” Mattix said. “But when they hit shots like that, there isn’t much you can do.”
Hood ended with a game-high 24 points for Western Reserve and Markley added 19. Dale Smith dropped in 11 and nine different Roughriders reached the scoring column. Hood and Markley grabbed six rebounds each.
“It’s a rhythm game and we felt coming in that we had more fire power than they did,” Sheldon said. “We have more players, but their kids battled and cut the lead.”
Evans ended his Bucyrus career with 21 points and eight rebounds. Hamm added 10 points and Jaylen Zehner had eight, while Lucas Kozinski hauled down nine rebounds. Ten Redmen scored in all.
“Ryan was a kid who didn’t want this to end,” Mattix said. “People saw (the result) of how much he worked in the off-season. He didn’t just turn into a 14-15-point scorer. He led the league in 3-point percentage.”
Derek Heinlen and Kade Slagle played their last game in a Bucyrus uniform and injured Gram Dick also saw his Redmen basketball career come to an end.
“We have a great group of seniors,” Mattix said. “I know they didn’t get the playing time they wanted late in the season, but they laid the groundwork for what we want to do.”
“Our kids kept attacking,” Sheldon said. “We wanted to be aggressive. We’ve got three guys who have been to two straight district final games. They have kids who have not played in one tournament game. Experience is important come March.”
“We have to practice hard and that carries over to the game,” Mattix said. “Next year, we know what we have to do to improve. We have a month off from the kids, but the coaches won’t take time off.”
Bucyrus 12 12 20 15 — 59
Western Reserve 24 19 19 24 — 76
Bucyrus: (3-20): Shots 23-57; 3-pt. shots 4-18 (Ryan Evans 3, Harley Robinson); Free throws 9-12; Rebounds 37 (Lucas Kozinski 9, Ryan Evans 8); Turnovers 13. Scoring: Harley Robinson 2 0 5, Jaylen Zehner 3 2 8, Ben Seibert 2 0 4, Nic Middleton 0 1 1, Ryan Evans 8 2 21, Lucas Kozinski 0 3 3, Kade Slagle 1 0 2, Dylan Goff 1 1 3, Kyle Hamm 5 0 10, Jacob Carr 1 0 2.
Western Reserve: (15-6): Shots 31-65; 3-pt. shots 15-36 (Braden Hood 6, Aiden Markley 4, Luke Rowlinson 2, Pierce Livermore, Cory Hipp, J.J. Weisenberger); Free throws 9-17; Rebounds 36 (Braden Hood 6, Aiden Markley 6); Turnovers 5. Scoring: Cory Hipp 2 0 5, Dale Smith 4 3 11, J.J. Weisenberger 2 1 6, Braden Hood 9 0 24, Aiden Markley 6 3 19, Gavin Braden 3 1 7, Pierce Livermore 2 0 5, Luke Rowlinson 2 0 6, Riley Suhr 1 1 3.
Twitter: @TF_Schmidt
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