BUCYRUS — Mohawk’s offense can be explosive, but the Warriors’ defense lights the fuse.
Mohawk forced Bucyrus into 17 first-half turnovers and shot 54 percent from the field in the first two periods to build a 46-14 lead at intermission. The Warriors then cruised to a 74-32 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“That’s been our focus,” Mohawk coach Paul Dunn said. “I’ve told the kids the last few games to hang their hat on defense. We had a couple of games earlier in the year that I don’t think we were doing that. So, I’m proud of the guys for coming out and focusing on that.”
On the other side, Bucyrus (1-5, 1-3 N10) continues to look for a spark to an offense that gets little production from anyone not named Mike Wise, who is second in the N10 in scoring at 18.2 points per game. The team is averaging 48 ppg.
“I thought Mohawk played very well,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “I thought, with their pressure, they got their hands on a lot of passes. We knew exactly what they were going to do. I thought their zones was very effective. I thought we were prepared. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.”
As Egan noted, the Warriors played zone defense, like most of the Redmen’s previous opponents had, limiting Bucyrus’ offense except for Wise. The difference on this night was that Mohawk (7-2, 4-1) also held Wise to 10 points.
“We wanted to focus on Mike Wise. We know he’s a good player, high scorer,” Dunn said. “I thought our guys executed what we were talking about. We were able to get steals and that turns into a lot of offense for us.”
The offense started from the get-go. The Warriors ran out to a 22-6 first-quarter lead, hitting nine of 15 shots — including four 3-point shots — with the help of six Redmen turnovers.
The second quarter was a virtual carbon copy of the first, except this time Bucyrus played a much better host by coughing up 11 turnovers, to give the Warriors their 32-point lead at intermission.
“(Seventeen) turnovers in the first half didn’t help and eight were unforced,” Egan said. “You can’t do that against a team that, as soon as they get a steal, they want to go with it.”
Mohawk, on the other hand, took exceptional care of the ball. The Warriors had just three turnovers at halftime and four through three quarters.
“The three seniors, with (Landen) Snyder, (Tyler) Hayman and (Austin) Tusing, there are essentially three point guards out there,” Dunn said. “I get on those guys pretty hard when we turn the ball over too many times. They’re too smart to do that too many times. I’m proud of them tonight for not doing that.”
Dunn substituted freely in the second half with eight different Warriors reaching the scoring column.
“It’s our fourth game losing by 40 points,” Egan said. “It seems like everybody’s making shots against us. But they’re not contested. We need to do a better job of getting over screens, we need to do a better job of pressuring the ball and rebounding shouldn’t be a hobby, it should be a matter of necessity.”
Wise led the Redmen with his 10 points — eight under his average — and Grady Jackson added seven. Wise also grabbed 11 rebounds.
“Watching the Seneca East film and other films, it seemed like (Wise) got a little free reign in the high post,” Dunn said. “Our focus was to make sure we took that away and make them find other ways to get him the basketball.”
Tusing had a game-high 27 points for Mohawk. Snyder finished with 11 points and A.J. Hess added 10 points and 10 rebounds despite early foul trouble. The Warriors were 11 of 22 from beyond the arc.
“We’ve got some good shooters,” Dunn said. “Really, the first six we play have the outside ability to shoot. When we can draw double teams and our guards can get downhill and make some kickout passes, we’re a tough team to guard. Tonight, we were able to show that.”
Things don’t get easier, as next up for the Redmen is a trip to North Robinson to face league-leading and undefeated Colonel Crawford on Saturday.
“We still don’t make good decisions with the ball,” Egan said. “It just seems like the teams that we’ve lost to play with a lot of passion, a lot of intensity, a lot of desire. Individually, we need to mimic the same thing. I think our kids have a lot of soul searching to do and we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”
Mohawk also won the junior varsity game, 60-21. Nathan Geary had a game-high 17 points to lead the Warriors and Reese Hannam added 16.
Malachi Bayless had eight points for Bucyrus and Kavan Combs finished with four.
Box score
Mohawk 22 24 17 11 — 74
Bucyrus 6 8 5 13 — 32
Mohawk (7-2, 4-1 N10): Shots 29-60; 3-pt. shots 11-22 (Austin Tusing 5, Landen Snyder 3, Trey Combs 2, A.J. Hess); Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 37 (A.J. Hess 10); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Tyler Hayman 2 1 5, Austin Tusing 10 2 27, Landen Snyder 4 0 11, Bryce Lange 1 1 3, Xavier Oesch 3 0 6, A.J. Hess 4 1 10, Trey Combs 3 0 8, Reese Hannam 2 0 4.
Bucyrus (1-5, 1-3 N10): Shots 14-44; 3-pt. shots 0-14; Free throws 4-7; Rebounds 26 (Mike Wise 11); Turnovers 22. Scoring: Joe Rager 2 0 4, Mike Wise 5 0 10, Grady Jackson 3 1 7, Jake Hamm 2 1 5, Malachi Bayless 1 2 4, Eddie Dagher 1 0 2.
JV: Mohawk 60-21.