BUCYRUS — Slow starts for young teams are difficult to overcome.
It has been the story of the season so far for Bucyrus.
Northmor ran out to a 19-5 lead before the Redmen offense got untracked as Bucyrus played catchup the rest of the night in an eventual 64-52 non-league loss at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“We’ve got to come out and start a little bit better,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “We come out and we settle for jump shots. We get two offensive rebounds (in the first half) and the one thing we can’t be is a jump-shot team. We’ve got to be a team that looks inside first and then out from there.”
The Redmen held the lead briefly in the first quarter, at 5-4, on a basket by Lucas Kozinski at the 3:12 mark. But it was all Golden Knights from there.
Northmor (7-2) scored the last eight points of the first period to lead 12-5 and the first seven of the second frame to build the 19-5 bulge.
“I think tonight we just came out and tried to go for the throat right off the bat because of (their) last couple of games with Upper Sandusky (and Colonel Crawford),” Northmor coach Zach Ruth said. “We’re not Upper Sandusky, we’re not Colonel Crawford. We don’t have that much fire power and depth and speed.”
Bucyrus (0-10) finally got untracked offensively midway through the second quarter. Kozinski scored seven of his team-high 18 points over the last half of the period to keep the Redmen in striking distance, trailing 32-18, at intermission.
“There’s two things you can control, your attitude and your effort,” Egan said. “I think giving up straight line drives for layups is an effort thing. There’s got to come a time in the season where you’ve just got to say enough’s enough.”
With the resulting high-percentage shots, the Knights hit 14 of 26 shots in the first half and 28 of 45 for the game. Seven different Knights scored in the first half, which pleased the coach.
“Balanced scoring with these guys is great,” Ruth said. “They share the ball. Sometimes they share it too much.”
Northmor stretched the lead to 48-32 after three quarters and went out to a 62-42 advantage with just under three minutes left in the game.
But the Redmen did not fold, getting to within 10, at 62-52, on a 3 by Kozinski with 38 seconds left. However, time ran out on the Bucyrus rally.
“We got (the deficit), I think, to workable, manageable,” Egan said. “We tried to get it to nine points with six minutes to go and we proceeded to give up two straight line drives for layups and this was after we subbed in.”
Blake Miller scored 18 points to lead the Knights, while Logan Randolph, Kooper Keen and Hunter Mariotti added 10 each. Mariotti grabbed 10 rebounds to help give his team a 31-17 advantage on the glass.
“I understand we’re undersized, I understand we’re not as tall and our physical stature’s a little bit depleted,” Egan said. “But you’ve just got to find a way. Somebody’s got to make a play and we’ve got to have a leader step up and make sure guys are matched up accordingly. These are things you just have to do. It’s kind of hard to coach that.”
Nick Middleton second Kozinski’s 18 points with 13 for Bucyrus. Gabe Higginbotham finished with seven. Kozinski collected four boards.
“An ugly win is better than a pretty loss,” Ruth said. “Bucyrus is playing really hard. The Kozinski kid is the real deal. He gave us fits tonight.
“Hats off to Coach Egan and the Bucyrus guys for going hard,” Ruth added. “All these kids have bought into what they are trying to do here.”
Egan was pleased with the increased offensive output, including a season-high seven made 3s.
“We did it on quick ball reversal,” Egan said of the long-distance success. “It came from the inside and kicked out. That’s the way we’ve got to play. We have to have a lot of guys touch the ball. But we also have to have our feet ready and shoot it.”
Northmor (8-1) also won the junior varsity game, 57-45. Gavin Miller scored 13 points to lead the Knights, while Logan Mariotti had 12 and Preston Harbolt finished with 11.
Spencer Huff had a game-high 17 points for Bucyrus (1-9). Ethan Powers and Eddie Dagher dropped in seven each.
Box score
Northmor 12 20 16 16 — 64
Bucyrus 5 13 14 20 — 52
Northmor (7-2): Shots 28-45; 3-pt 3-8 (Logan Randolph 2, Graesin Casso); Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 31 (Hunter Mariotti 10); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Logan Randolph 4 0 10, Graesin Casso 3 0 7, Alex Tuttle 1 2 4, Kooper Keen 4 2 10, Max Lower 2 1 5, Hunter Mariotti 5 0 10, Blake Miller 9 0 18.
Bucyrus (0-10): Shots 20-49; 3-pt. shots 7-19; Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 17 (Lucas Kozinski 4); Turnovers 15. Scoring: Lucas Kozinski 7 1 18, Joe Rager 2 0 5, Mike Wise 1 2 4, Grady Jackson 1 1 3, Nick Middleton 5 1 13, Gabe Higginbotham 3 0 7, Jake Hamm 1 0 2.
JV: Northmor 57-45.