MARION — Pleasant hit the midway point of its season in full stride, relying on a trifecta of leading scorers and a deep bench for a 60-28 non-league win over Buckeye Central Wednesday night.
The Lady Spartans raced out to a 9-0 lead as Whitney Waddell and Avah Steele set the tone early with baskets. The lead grew to 29-10 by halftime. Steele had 10 at the break.
Buckeye Central (3-6) head coach Phil Loy recognized his team would face a tough challenge.
“We knew that going in they are very skilled. I told the girls that this team has a very high basketball IQ. They don’t make a lot of mistakes and they play very well together. They’ve got a lot of weapons that can hurt you,” Loy said.
Pleasant (10-1) got 14 points from Steele and a dozen from freshman Kamryn Cocherl off the bench. Waddell netted 10, as 8 different players found the scoring column.
“They create match-up problems. They’re long, they’re athletic, they can shoot, and they can put it on the floor,” Loy said of the Lady Spartans. “They have a lot of shooters out there. You’ve got to choose your poison.”
The hosts also played a tough brand of defense.
“The thing about them is they switch things up a lot,” Loy said. “It keeps you off balance and you never really get comfortable with what’s going on.
“We got a lot of great opportunities early and we’re rushing things, possession after possession. We could have capitalized. It was 12-5 and we have 3 air balls. We had a lot of wide-open looks. I thought defensively we did a solid job., but we had some lapses here and there.”
The Buckettes got 13 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals from junior Grace Collene as she was the lone player in double figures.
Pleasant head coach Keriann Pratt said her team competes in a tough Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference and prides itself on stopping its opponents.
“Our defense has been our staple. We’ve always been the kind of gritty team that’ll get after it,” she said.
“Our league is super tough. Shelby beat Clear Fork. Clear Fork beat us … you just never know. Every night that we play an MOAC conference match, it’s lights out for everybody.”
Shelby is 6-0 in the league with Pleasant and Clear Fork both right behind at 5-1.
Pratt acknowledged Buckeye Central’s tradition.
“They’ve had quite the legacy, always top-notch teams that have been to the regionals and even been to the state,” Pratt said.
“The past four years the (Ryley) Kantzer girl is family friends with some of our Spartans. We know they’ve been to the regionals for four years. It’s an outstanding program and great people over there at Buckeye.”
The Buckettes had 23 turnovers and didn’t shoot well, hitting just 25% of their shots from the floor. Pleasant turned the ball over just 9 times and shot roughly 50% (24-of-47) from the field.
“We need to improve things like not bringing yourself into a trap. You’ve got to be able to see the floor,” Loy said. “That is something our girls are learning. You don’t see this at the jayvee level and a lot of them were jayvee girls last year. This is a big step for them.”
Buckeye Central is back in action at noon Saturday when it hosts Carey (6-1, 3-1 N10) in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference contest.
Box score
Buckeye Central 5 5 10 8 — 28
Pleasant 16 13 16 15 — 60
Buckeye Central (3-6): Shots 9-36; 3-pt. shots 4-10 (Grace Collene 2, Mara McDougal, Aleyse Siefert); Free throws 6-8; Rebounds 22 (Aleyse Siefert 9); Turnovers 23. Scoring: Mara McDougal 2 0 5, Grace Collene 3 5 13, Ella Evak 1 0 2, Nevaeh Metzger 2 0 4, Aleyse Siefert 1 0 3, Macy Deppen 0 1 1.
Pleasant (10-1): Shots 24-47; 3-pt. shots 7-15 (Kam Cocherl 2, Avah Steele 2, Maddie Murphy, Taydon Obenour, Nicole Robinson); Free throws 5-7; Rebounds 23 (Whitney Waddell 5, Kam Cocherl 5); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Taydon Obenour 2 0 5, Mary Aurigemma 2 0 4, Whitney Waddell 4 2 10, Nicole Robinson 2 0 5, Avah Steele 6 0 14, Brooklin Davis 3 0 6, Maddie Murphy 1 1 4, Kam Cocherl 4 2 12.