BUCYRUS — Isaac Mason broke a scoring record. In the process, he broke the Bucyrus Redmen as well.
Mason scored 26 points to lead Seneca East to a 65-56 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory over the Redmen at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium Friday.
The Tigers’ junior now has 615 points, surpassing the N10 single season record of Wynford’s Josh Crall, who scored 609 in 2018-19.
“I watched Josh play,” Mason said. “I just know that he could knock down the shot. It wasn’t just the 3-point shot. I had to knock down the mid-range jumper. That separates you form scoring maybe 15 points to 20 points.”
But Bucyrus (3-18, 1-13 N10) weathered Mason’s 14 first-half points to hold a 28-26 lead at intermission.
Then came the decisive third quarter.
“We were up at halftime and doing the things we wanted to do,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “The third quarter was all she wrote. We had good shots in that third quarter, they just didn’t fall for us. Once you give (Seneca East) time to get things going, Mason can get it going.”
The Tigers hit only eight of 22 shots in the first half, though they were seven of nine from the line, which helped them stay within two.
“(Bucyrus) came out and shot the ball pretty well,” Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst said. “We had some open looks that were OK. We just didn’t convert. Of course, Isaac was stroking early, so that kind of kept us in the game and allowed us to make a few adjustments in the second half.”
Kolton Middleton was on fire early from beyond the 3-point line, connecting on three 3s in the first quarter and four in the first half.
“It’s a credit to our guys for finding him in transition,” Egan said. “With (Kolton) and Malachi (Bayless) on the wings, we’ve just got to keep finding him.”
“It was on our scouter that he was a good shooter, and he was somebody we had to look after,” Langhurst said. “He’s one of those types of guys that sees the ball go in the hole and he just thinks everything is going in after that.”
In the decisive third period, Seneca East (7-15, 2-12) picked up the shooting percentage. The Tigers connected on 10 of 16 shots to just four of 15 for the Redmen. That resulted in a 13-point swing and a 48-37 advantage for Seneca East after three.
Bucyrus never recovered. An early run in the fourth quarter got them to within 48-43, but that was as close as they could get. It was still 57-51 on a basket by Bayless with 1:42 left, but the Tigers made six of six free throws from there to seal the win.
Six player control fouls, resulting in six turnovers and several nullified baskets, haunted the Redmen.
“We’ve got to play through it,” Egan said. “We can only control what we do on the floor. That’s part of the game, that’s part of learning. We have to get above and beyond that, be a little bit more mentally tough and find a way on the defensive end to make up for it. At times, we do that and at times we don’t do it.”
Aiden Hines supported Mason’s 26 with 19 points for Seneca East. Mason had a double-double with 13 rebounds.
“It helped we had some guys step up and take some charges,” Langhurst said. “We kind of made a few of their scorers a little reluctant to get to the rim or they had to sit. Obviously, that was a big factor going into the second half as far as keeping their drivers contained.”
Middleton led Bucyrus with 19 points — including five 3s — and Bayless added 15. Mike Wise grabbed eight rebounds.
“Kolton knows he has the green light for us,” Egan said. “Sometimes when you miss a shot, you make sure the next shot is a little better shot to get that confidence going back again. Give credit to the guys getting him the ball in scoring position.”
The teams have a third game in the Division III sectional tournament at Hopewell-Loudon on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be a nice challenge,” Langhurst said. “The seniors they’ve got are a good group. The young guys are good shooters. So, we’ll definitely have our hands full.”
Seneca East also won the junior varsity game, 52-42. Lucas Borcher had a game-high 17 points to lead the Tigers and Keeno Ruffing had 10. Blayne Stewart-Barto led Bucyrus with 11 and Kavan Combs added 10.
Box score
Seneca East 14 12 22 17 — 65
Bucyrus 15 13 9 19 — 56
Seneca East (7-15, 2-12 N10): Shots 23-51; 3-pt. shots 6-20 (Isaac Mason 2, Lucas Hicks 2, Alex King, Aidan Hines); Free throws 13-15; Rebounds 38 (Isaac Mason 16); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Graham Gibbs 1 0 2, Alex King 2 0 5, Isaac Mason 9 6 26, Aidan Hines 7 4 19, Kadin Snay 1 0 2, Blake Foos 1 1 3, Lucas Hicks 2 2 8.
Bucyrus (3-18, 1-13 N10): Shots 21-59; 3-pt. shots 6-20 (Kolton Middleton 5, Malachi Bayless); Free throws 8-13; Rebounds 29 (Mike Wise 8); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Eddie Dagher 1 0 2, Joe Rager 1 0 2, Mike Wise 3 2 8, Grady Jackson 5 0 10, Kolton Middleton 7 0 19, Malachi Bayless 4 6 15.
JV: Seneca East 52-42.