BUCYRUS (Crawford County Now) — Learning to win is a big part of the equation to building a winning culture.
Bucyrus coach Brian Seybert’s young charges got an object lesson in their game with Mount Gilead Friday night.
The Lady Red built a 14-point lead with under three minutes left in the first half. But the Indians cut it to 3 before halftime, then went on to win 56-43 in the season opener for both teams at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium on Phil A. Joseph Court.
“That’s probably one of the best starts we’ve had in quite a few years,” Seybert said. “Everything was just kind of falling for us. We had four 3s and we were four-for-four from the line.”
Savannah Clark hit a pair from beyond the arc, and Lillyan Butchko and Karlee Shull added one each as Bucyrus ran out to an 18-7 advantage after one.
The momentum stayed with the Lady Red for a chunk of the second quarter as well. Freshman Ni’Cia Floyd came off the bench and scored five points and Butchko hit another 3 as Bucyrus expanded the lead to 14 at 26-12.
“The start of the second quarter was good. Then we got into a little bit of foul trouble,” Seybert said. “We ended up with two starters on the bench. We had some inexperienced girls in there. (Mount Gilead) picked up the press, got some turnovers out of it and they got some quick buckets, and they got right back in the game.”
The Indians scored 11 unanswered points in just over two minutes to trim their deficit to 26-23 going to intermission. Mount Gilead coach Dani Bault thought it took her team a little while to adjust.
“We came out, obviously, with first-game jitters, and you could tell,” Bault said. “And then we settled down and played aggressive. We were kind of sitting back and not being the aggressor in the first quarter. And (Bucyrus) came out and hit shots.”
The Indians kept the momentum into the third quarter. The visitors went on an 11-1 run to take over the lead at 34-27 in the first three minutes of the frame. Mount Gilead got the advantage up to nine — at 40-31 on a basket by Kendall Neal — before the Lady Red scored the final three points of the quarter to trail 40-34, after three.
“We’ve got to be able to handle that pressure and handle those momentum swings and stay out of foul trouble,” Seybert said. “That will be a big key for us all year long.”
Youth contributed to the momentum switch at the end of the second quarter. Over the last two-plus minutes, Bucyrus had three freshmen on the floor.
“Along with three freshmen, we had a couple girls out of normal spots trying to break the press and they didn’t know what to do,” Seybert noted.
Dani Pohlkotte had seven points and Neal added six to fuel the Indians’ third quarter surge.
“This was a character-building game,” Bault said. “That was the proudest thing for me. When you get down like that, you could fold. But they showed this was the attitude we want our athletes to take on.”
“Mount Gilead got hot there in the second half,” Seybert said. “And you start seeing the ball go in, somebody makes one, it gets contagious, and somebody else makes one. We were just chasing the entire time after that.”
The Indians start three seniors and a junior, but seven of the 14-player roster are freshmen, and they were able to contribute.
“All of our seniors played a great game, and we have a ton of freshmen coming off the bench,” Bault said. “We are young besides our starters, and we had a freshman (Charlie Brannon) come in and score 12 points in her varsity debut.”
Despite poor shooting in the second half, Bucyrus was able to hang around. The Lady Red were within three at 42-39 on a basket by Floyd with 4:50 remaining, but the Indians closed the game out on a 14-4 run to set the final score.
Pohlkotte led all scorers with 22 points, Neal added 15 and Brannon finished with 12 for Mount Gilead. Kenlee Trainer grabbed eight rebounds.
“Mount Gilead has a nice little point guard — the Neal girl — and Pohlkotte got hot at the end of the second quarter,” Seybert said. “Those were our two main focus points, to try to limit their scores. But they combined for 37 of their 56. We didn’t really execute the defensive game plan like we wanted to.”
Clark led Bucyrus with 15 points and Floyd — also making her varsity debut — finished with 11. Butchko added nine while she and Tori Stang had eight boards.
“It was a good win,” Bault said. “We were down by (14) and we came back and won by (13).”
“It’s going to come, and we’ll learn from each and every game that we play,” Seybert said. “For only having two upperclassmen — one senior and one junior — the rest are sophomores and freshmen. We are asking a lot out of some of those underclassmen.
“They never gave up. They battled the entire game,” Seybert added. “We cut it back down to three and had an opportunity.”
Mount Gilead also won the junior varsity game, 20-11, in two quarters of play.
Box score
Mount Gilead 7 16 17 16 — 56
Bucyrus 18 8 8 9 — 43
Mount Gilead (1-0): Shots 22-65; 3-pt. shots 5-16 (Dani Pohlkotte 4, Kylee Whipple); Free throws 7-14; Rebounds 38 (Kenlee Trainer 8, Cassady Irwin 7); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Kendall Neal 7 1 15, Charlie Brannon 5 2 12, Kylee Whipple 1 0 3, Dani Pohlkotte 7 4 22, Cassady Irwin 2 0 4.
Bucyrus (0-1): Shots 14-42; 3-pt. shots 5-21 (Savannah Clark 2, Lillyan Butchko 2, Karlee Shull); Free throws 10-18; Rebounds 37 (Tori Stang 8, Lillyan Butchko 8); Turnovers 20. Scoring: Ni’Cia Floyd 5 1 11, Macie Hubble 0 1 1, Karlee Shull 1 0 3, Tori Stang 1 2 4, Lillyan Butchko 2 3 9, Savannah Clark 5 3 15.
JV: Mount Gilead 20-11 (2 quarters).