BUCYRUS — Led by 6-foot-3 post Emily Klopp, the Mohawk Warriors want to push the basketball inside and be physical.
But for a half, the Bucyrus Lady Red played with them basket-for-basket and trailed by just one at the break, 20-19.
But Mohawk’s size and physicality was just too much for Bucyrus in the second half.
The Warriors held Bucyrus to just one point in the third period, while grabbing 18 rebounds to four in the frame and came away with a tough 47-34 win Tuesday night.
With the win, Mohawk improved to 5-3 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 11-3 overall, while Bucyrus fell to 1-7 in the conference, 4-8 overall.
But it was a tale of two halves for the Warriors, who made just nine of 18 shots in the first half, compared to 12 of 30 in the second.
Mohawk coach Bruce Hannam said that Bucyrus’ defense was the difference in the first half.
“We’ve been seeing mostly man-to-man, and we want to use our size and physicality to attack the paint,” Hannam said. “They were packing it in with a 2-3 zone and so we were trying to make passes to the inside that weren’t there. And so, we decided to undo any restrictions about the shooting because we wanted to get inside touches before shooting.
“If they were going to pack it in that much then we were going to have some shots,” Hannam added. “We knocked down a few shots, but, even better than that, we weren’t shooting the ball great, but we were getting backside rebounds and getting rebounds around the basket and getting some putbacks.”
Bucyrus coach Brian Seybert felt that, despite their size and physicality disadvantage, his team never gave up. Earlier in the season, Mohawk drubbed Bucyrus, 57-28.
“Klopp is just tall and, even if we jump as high as we can jump, she’s just going to be taller than we are with her arms up,” Seybert said.
“I’m proud of my girls for their effort, they could have caved it in there and it was almost 20 points and we cut it to nine with an effort in the press,” he added. “Turnover-wise, we only had seven and we forced (20). We had an opportunity there; we just didn’t score.”
Getting the basketball inside proved to be difficult for the Lady Red against Klopp, as she scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. More importantly, Klopp scored 12 points in the fourth quarter. Five-foot-10 running mate Mia Miller added 11 points and 11 boards in the game.
“She’s a force in there, she got the ball, but they knocked off her balance many times,” Hannam said of his senior post. “She had a nice game, 20 points and, I’m guessing 12 to 15 rebounds. Mia Miller, I’ll bet she had 11 or 12 rebounds.
“We played Bucyrus and we’re at a different stage in our season than they are. No one’s going to give us any wins, we have to fight for them,” Hannam added. “I just thought we needed to get back to what we were doing. Defense is going to take us where we need to be.”
The Lady Red got five points from Addison Kemery in the first period and held a 12-7 lead after one. But the Warriors held the Lady Red to just three of 11 shooting in the second period and grabbed a 20-19 lead at the break.
“Our game plan, early on, we were getting what we wanted; we got a little rough on ourselves a little bit,” Seybert said. “I thought we had a good game plan, and I thought the press could cause some turnovers there, maybe we should have run it a little longer, but give them credit, they fought back. They’re a good team; they’re one of the top four teams in the league and my girls played their hearts out tonight.”
The third period proved to be the difference in the game, as Mohawk’s physicality began to wear down Bucyrus. The Lady Red got just one free throw from Madalyn Kimmel in the period.
Mohawk didn’t take complete advantage, however, and led 30-20 entering the final period.
Mohawk led by as many as 16, 40-24, with 4:21 left in the game on a Klopp follow, but the Lady Red got some momentum going with their full-court pressure, scoring seven straight points to cut the lead to 40-31 with 2:27 left on a Marissa Middleton layup.
Bucyrus, however, could get no closer.
“The one thing I was frustrated with, down at the end, they put some pressure on us and we have to be able to survive,” Hannam said. “Just a little bit of pressure and not let them speed us up in the game and make some poor decisions.
“Bucyrus is a spry team,” he added. “I’m friends with Coach Seybert and they’re playing better, so I give a lot of credit to their team. They are getting a lot better. They came up with a good game plan, packed it in. We just had to make adjustments and got a big enough lead.”
Kemery led the Lady Red with 13 points while Brook Dennison and Middleton added seven each.
“They picked up the physicality part of the game for us and, in this league, you have to be,” Seybert said of his players. “Playing that way and having what it takes.”
Mohawk won the junior varsity game, 44-24, Gracie Clouse and Allison Russell led Mohawk with 13 points. Kimmy Burling paced Bucyrus with seven.
Box score
Mohawk 7 13 10 17 — 47
Bucyrus 12 7 1 14 — 34
Mohawk (11-3, 5-3 N10): Shots 21-48; 3-pt. shots 3 (Josie Granata, A.J. Chevalier, Bailey Sheets); Free throws 2-10; Rebounds 39; Turnovers 20. Scoring: Josie Granata 2 0 5, A.J. Chevalier 2 0 5, Bailey Sheets 1 0 3, Emily Klopp 10 0 20, Mia Miller 5 1 11, Joleigh Hamilton 1 1 3.
Bucyrus (4-8, 1-7 N10): Shots 12-46; 3-pt. shots (Addison Kemery 2, Brook Dennison); Free throws 7-14; Rebounds 20; Turnovers 11. Scoring: Maddie Kimmel 2 1 5, Brook Dennison 2 2 7, Ady Rister 1 0 2, Addison Kemery 4 3 13, Marissa Middleton 3 1 7.
JV: Mohawk 44-24.