ATTICA — As the long basketball season rolls on, a young Bucyrus team has struggled to put together four quarters of solid offense and defense combined.
It was their senior star who helped breathe knew hope into a season of frustration.
Lucas Kozinski scored a career-high 31 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Redmen to a 62-57 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win over Seneca East Saturday night.
To put that effort into historical perspective, Kozinski broke the 30-point barrier for only the 36th time in the 109-year history of the Bucyrus basketball program.
“Our guards got him the ball in the right position and allowed him to score,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “A couple of times, I thought he got fouled and we didn’t get the call. I like the fact we didn’t complain about it. We just went down and made a play at the other end.”
“He’s a good player, I’m not going to take anything away from him.” Seneca East coach Chris Long said. “Sometimes, we got a little complacent and stood behind and allowed him to catch. Most guys, when they can stand on the block and catch, they’re pretty good. You have to make them work a little bit.”
It was, in fact, a team effort that gave Bucyrus (2-14. 2-9 N10) just its second of the year. The Redmen hit 27 of 50 shots from the field and committed just 12 turnovers. More importantly, they held Andy Bauman — fourth in the league in 3-point shooting percentage at 45 percent — to just six points.
“We were really concerned with him the last five minutes of the game,” Egan said. “I thought Grady (Jackson) did a really good job on him. And I thought Mike Wise did a good job on (Andrew Kalb). They have two kids who can score a lot of points and Michael and Grady stepped up to it and really helped.”
Kalb — fourth in the N10 in scoring at 16.6 points per game coming in — ended with a team-high 14, but only two came in the pivotal fourth quarter.
The Redmen jumped out to an early 10-4 lead but the Tigers came back to tie the score at 13-13 by period’s end. It was a pattern for the game throughout. Neither team led by more than six points and the game was tied on 10 different occasions.
Pieter Wise came off the bench to score all six of his points in the second quarter to help the Tigers to an 18-14 advantage in the frame and a 31-27 lead at halftime.
Despite that, Long thought his offense didn’t take full advantage of opportunities.
“I thought we had some looks we didn’t take, and I thought we settled (for shots) otherwise,” Long said. “We have a tendency that, after the ball goes one or two passes, it gets held and our offense isn’t predicated on that. Our offense is predicated on moving the ball, cutting and attacking.”
Bucyrus managed to tie the game at 39-39 on a basket by Kozinski with 2:47 left in the third quarter and when the buzzer ending the period sounded, the game was knotted at 45-45.
Seneca East (5-10, 4-8) tied the game for the last time at 47-47 on a basket by Turner Bridgford. Nick Middleton hit a pair of free throws for the Redmen two possessions later to give his team the lead for good.
“We did a much better job of stopping dribble-drive and we were able to rebound better,” Egan said. “That gave us the chance. We didn’t turn it over very many times, and it gave us more opportunities to score.”
Kozinski hit a 3 and completed a three-point play to give Bucyrus a 55-49 lead and the Tigers never got closer than 10. The Redmen made just enough free throws down the stretch to hold on.
“You’ve got to give Bucyrus credit,” Long said. “They outplayed us, they outhustled us, they were more physical than us. You can’t come in and not match your opponents’ intensity and expect to win.”
Bridgford seconded Kalb’s 14 with nine points for Seneca East. Ten different Tigers reached the scoring column. Bauman had nine rebounds.
Middleton supported Kozinski’s monster effort with 13 points and Wise added nine for the Redmen. Kozinski had nine boards and Middleton added eight.
“We did a good job of spreading the floor,” Egan said. “That credit goes to Nick and Grady. We said our guards had to be good tonight — Nick and Grady and Joe (Rager) and Jake (Hamm) — those four guys came in and played well with the ball.”
“People can say you missed shots, you did this,” Long said. “The fact of the matter is you’ve got to sit down and defend. If you’re not going to defend, I don’t care how many points you put on the board, I don’t care what level of basketball, you aren’t going to win very many games thinking you’re going to outscore everybody.”
“We want to get better every week,” Egan said. “Our kids come in and practice hard every day. Sometimes, it doesn’t look like it, but their attitude’s been good. I’m just really proud of them and I’m proud of the team we’re hopefully going to be here in the future.”
Seneca East divided the evening with a 45-31 win in the junior varsity game. Cody Heibertshausen and Isaac Mason each scored 13 points to lead the Tigers.
Karson Kimmel scored 10 points and Spencer Huff added eight for Bucyrus.
Box score
Bucyrus 13 14 18 17 — 62
Seneca East 13 18 14 12 — 57
Bucyrus (2-14, 2-9 N10): Shots 27-50; 3-pt. shots 1-7 (Lucas Kozinski); Free throws 7-13; Rebounds 32 (Lucas Kozinski 9); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Lucas Kozinski 14 2 31, Joe Rager 1 0 2, Mike Wise 4 0 8, Grady Jackson 3 0 6, Nick Middleton 4 5 13, Jake Hamm 1 0 2.
Seneca East (5-10, 4-8 N10): Shots 23-61; 3-pt. shots 5-19 (Andy Bauman 2, Turner Bridgford, Jake Siesel, Jake Forehand); Free throws 6-7; Rebounds 33 (Andy Bauman 9); Turnovers 7. Scoring: Jake Forehand 3 0 7, Zane Gibbs 1 0 2, Jake Siesel 2 0 5, Andrew Kalb 5 4 14, Austin Snay 1 0 2, Luke Stockmaster 2 0 4, Brock Ferres 1 0 2, Andy Bauman 2 0 6, Turner Bridgford 3 2 9, Pieter Wise 3 0 6.
JV: Seneca East 45-31.