BUCYRUS — For the third straight game, Bucyrus played a top tier Northern 10 Athletic Conference opponent to a virtual standoff by halftime.
Putting together two halves is the next hurdle for the Redmen if they are to join that top half of the league themselves.
Bucyrus grabbed a 17-12 first quarter lead and trailed just 29-28 against explosive Mohawk at the break. But a huge second half offensively and some lockdown defense carried the Warriors to a 77-43 victory at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“We’ve seen their film. We know what they did to Carey at halftime. We know what they did to Seneca East at halftime,” Mohawk coach Paul Dunn said. “We knew they’ve been playing better basketball. We told the kids you can’t just walk in there.”
Bucyrus (2-10, 0-8 N10) came out strong. The game was tied at 9-9 but Redmen went on an 8-3 run to the end of the first quarter to take a five-point lead.
Malachi Bayless hit three 3-point shots and a pair of free throws to fuel the offense.
The Warriors got to the free throw line more in the second quarter, which helped the offense gain traction. Mohawk (11-2, 6-2) regained the lead for the first time since midway through the first quarter, at 24-23, on a free throw by Brayden Chester, with 3:33 left in the half.
The Redmen went back ahead on a Bayless basket with 1:09 to go in the second period, but the Warriors got a basket late from Bryce Hannam to take the one-point lead to the locker room.
“We ran our game plan, did exactly what we thought we needed to do,” Bucyrus coach Scott Gifford said. “Malachi obviously hit some big shots. Our defense was great, our transition was great, our shot selection. But it was a tale of two halves.”
Indeed, Mohawk came out in the third quarter looking like a different team. The Warriors scored the first 14 points of the second half to expand their narrow halftime lead to 41-28.
“I think we came out flat and we allowed one guy (Bayless) — their best player — to do way too much and get it way too easily,” Dunn said. “Once we refocused at halftime, I thought we did a much better job.”
Bayless had 20 points at halftime, but managed just two more in the second half.
“They’re going to come out and pressure Malachi,” Gifford said. “We’ve got to get four other guys moving away from the ball. The couple times we did run our offense, we got wide-open layups. The guys have got to believe in what we’re doing and run it all the way through.”
While the Mohawk defense was slowing the Redmen offense to a crawl in the second half, the offense took off. The Warriors scored 48 second-half points to turn a tight game into a rout.
“We’ve talked to our guys that we have to get to the basket early, getting the layups, getting the free throws to allow that shot to come more naturally,” Dunn said. “I thought too much early we were chucking up the first transition 3 we got and when we do that, we make it tough on ourselves.”
Bayless ended with 22 points to lead all scorers. Noah Burke added eight points and nine rebounds for the Redmen. Randy Banks also had nine boards.
A.J. Hess had 14 of his 21 points in the second half surge and Boomer Cleveland also had 21 for the Warriors. Hannam added 14 and Chester came in with 10. Hess and Hannam had nine rebounds each.
“We’re a young team. We have one returning varsity player, not just starter,” Gifford said. “Everyone else was jayvee last year. They haven’t been in these situations against one of the top teams in the league. We hang with them in the first half. Now they have to learn how to win, finish it.”
“We want to make teams actually have to play defense on us and not make it easy on them,” Dunn said. “We didn’t do that early, but in the second half we did a much better job. It helps when we get stops, get deflections, and runout layups to get yourself going.”
“When they went on that run (early in the third quarter), we reacted well to it,” Gifford said. “”I’m proud of my guys for that. There were some things in the fourth quarter I’m not proud of. We’ll work on it; we’ll tighten it up. We’ve just got to get better every single practice.”
Mohawk also won the junior varsity game, 51-32. Ben Bogner led all scorers with 16 points and Kaleb Bush added 14 for the Warriors. Georgie Floyd led Bucyrus with nine points and Devin Deskins finished with eight.
Box score
Mohawk 12 17 25 23 — 77
Bucyrus 17 11 10 5 — 43
Mohawk (11-2, 6-2 N10): Shots 31-68; 3-pt. shots 9-30 (Boomer Cleveland 4, Brayden Chester 3, Hunter Haynes, A.J. Hess); Free throws 6-16; Rebounds 42 (A.J. Hess 9, Kahne Hayman 9); Turnovers 14. Scoring: Kahne Hayman 3 0 6, Boomer Cleveland 8 1 21, Hunter Haynes 1 0 3, A.J. Hess 8 4 21, Connor Flood 1 0 2, Bryce Hannam 7 0 14, Brayden Chester 3 1 10.
Bucyrus (2-10, 0-8 N10): Shots 18-49; 3-pt. shots 5-16 (Malachi Bayless 4, Kam Lewis); Free throws 2-3; Rebounds 30 (Noah Burke 9, Randy Banks 9); Turnovers 25. Scoring: Kam Lewis 1 0 3, Blayne Barto 1 0 2, Noah Burke 4 0 8, Kavan Combs 1 0 2, Malachi Bayless 8 2 22, Randy Banks 3 0 6.
JV: Mohawk 51-32.