ATTICA — Bucyrus has a mix of young and veteran players with obvious potential.

The Redmen are discovering early on that potential must translate to the court and the Seneca East Tigers gave them a hard lesson.

The Tigers’ full-court press and 1-3-1 zone defense helped force 19 Bucyrus turnovers as Seneca East pulled away to a 76-53 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory.

“We just went five straight practices against the 1-3-1, against the 1-2-1-1 press,” Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis said. “They did nothing different than we thought they would. I think our guys didn’t focus on the game plan enough, we don’t practice hard enough, and it showed right here.”

The Redmen coughed up six turnovers in the first quarter as the Tigers eased out to a 19-11 lead after one. Lucas Bordner and Luke Mason had six points each to lead the way.

It was a preview of things to come. Seneca East (3-0, 1-0 N10) forced six more miscues by Bucyrus (1-2, 0-1) in the second quarter to build a 41-26 lead at intermission. Balanced scoring was the theme as seven different Tigers scored in the first two periods and nine for the game.

“Our guys are pretty smart, and their hands are pretty quick,” Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst said. “We feel pretty comfortable about trying to speed teams up. It benefits us more than it hurts us.

“We’ve got some athletes out there,” Langhurst continued. “I’m just trying to utilize them to the best of their abilities — some guys like Blake Foos and Aiden Hines.”

Bucyrus made a run early in the third period to get back within 41-32 thanks to a pair of 3-point shots by Malachi Bayless. But the Tigers outscored the visitors 16-12 over the rest of the third period to push the lead back to 57-44.

“They anticipate the next pass. That’s kind of what we don’t do,” Hargis said. “We get flat-footed. And I think the guys come out and didn’t take (Seneca East) serious.”

Hines and Mason led the Tigers with 17 points each. Bordner added 15 and Foos finished with 10. Caden Fritz grabbed eight rebounds.

“The big thing tonight is I thought the guys were making the right decision,” Langhurst said. “If there was a guy open, they made the pass. It’s nice to have a guy able to get a bucket when things are getting tough.”

Bayless led Bucyrus with a game-high 20 points. Georgie Floyd added 14. Jackson Farrar had four rebounds.

“I told the guys it’s lucky we got them early at home,” Langhurst said of the Redmen. “They’ve got a couple of younger guys just getting their feet wet in the N10. They’re just going to get better. And Malachi can go off at any time. We’ve got a couple of guys that can be explosive too, so we thought there would be some fireworks.”

“(Bordner’s) tough to stop. Our help-side (defense) isn’t there,” Hargis said. “You can’t expect, with Bordner on an island, to get a stop every possession. We’ve got to guard as a team.”

Langhurst liked the pace of the game.

“It’s fun for the kids. I think it’s better this way,” Langhurst said. “They get up and down the floor. They’re pretty athletic. That would be the way I’d want to play.”

“Even in a loss, we try to go forward,” Hargis said. “We definitely went backwards tonight. We have a lot of work to do.”

Seneca East also won the junior varsity game, 47-39. Ayden Zack and Brady Bloom each had 18 points for the Tigers. Christian Neal topped Bucyrus with 17 and Carson Witten added 11.

Box score

Bucyrus             11     15      18        9 — 53

Seneca East      19     22      16      19 — 76

Bucyrus (1-2, 0-1 N10): Shots 20-48; 3-pt. shots 7-16 (Malachi Bayless 4, Georgie Floyd 3); Free throws 6-12; Rebounds 23 (Jackson Farrar 4); Turnovers 19. Scoring: Georgie Floyd 5 1 14, Demarius Munn-Page 4 0 8, Noah Burke 1 1 3, Dylan Coppler 1 2 4, Jackson Farrar 2 0 4, Malachi Bayless 7 2 20.

Seneca East (3-0, 1-0 N10): Shots 27-55; 3-pt. shots 6-15 (Luke Mason 2, Aidan Hines, Lucas Bordner, Ayden Zack, Blake Foos); Free throws 16-24; Rebounds 34 (Caden Fritz 8); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Aidan Hines 6 4 17, Luke Mason 5 5 15, Jake Bowerman 0 2 2, Jake Bowerman 0 2 2, Caden Fritz 1 1 3, Lucas Bordner 7 0 15, Ayden Zack 1 1 4 Blake Foos 3 3 10, Lucas Hicks 2 0 4, Keeno Ruffing 2 0 4.

JV: Seneca East 47-39.