BUCYRUS — Senior Night is always an emotional time for those closing out their athletic careers.
For the Bucyrus Lady Redmen — who recognized Kelsie Grady, Karmyn Blizzard and Claire Schifer — that emotion carried over to the game.
The Lady Redmen raced out to a 13-0 lead to start the game and never looked back as they ran past Elgin, 70-40, in a non-league game at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium. It was the most points scored by a Bucyrus girls’ team in five years.
“Finally, four quarters,” Bucyrus coach Brian Seybert said. “I think we got that energy from the first quarter. It was Senior Night, and (a couple of) the seniors out there don’t normally get a lot of playing time. There was no reason to take them out that whole first quarter. They did a great job.”
Seybert started all three seniors and it worked out maybe better than he could have hoped. Bucyrus (4-17) scored the first baker’s dozen, fittingly capped on a basket by Schifer with 3:25 left in the first quarter.
The Comets were fighting uphill the rest of the night.
“We got off to a slow start,” Elgin coach Bob Douds said. “Bucyrus with senior night — they had the motivation. As with anyone who plays any sport, confidence is everything, and they had the confidence. We didn’t show up today. We got beat in every phase of the game.”
Elgin (10-10) stopped the bleeding with an 8-1 run to the end of the first quarter to cut their deficit to 14-8 by period’s end. The rally concerned Seybert, as he recalled the first meeting between the teams, a narrow 42-40 Bucyrus win on January 6.
“By the time the first quarter ended, it was 14-8 and that’s just about where we were down at their place,” Seybert said. “And then they snuck right back in it. They worked themselves right into a lead and we were fighting for our lives at that point. I reminded the girls of that, that we don’t want that to happen again.”
This time, the Redmen didn’t let the Comets back into the game. In what was almost a carbon copy of the first quarter, Bucyrus scored the first 13 points of the second quarter. Elgin again rallied to register nine of the last 10, but the Redmen had expanded their advantage to 27-18 at intermission.
The Comets never got it under double digits after that, as the second half was all Bucyrus. The Redmen used a 19-11 third quarter edge to blow out to a 47-28 lead after three.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well (13 of 48) and our free throws (9 of 17) were not very good,” Douds said. “Their big (Emma Tyrrell) got the rebound, just dribbled the entire court, and got the layup. Our bigs were having problems keeping up with her.”
Tyrrell had a game-high 21 points and 15 rebounds for the Redmen. Her coach was impressed with her aggressiveness to the basket.
“We’ve been on Emma all year to do that,” Seybert said. “Before this year, she would shy away from that contact. She did a couple of times (tonight), but the majority of the time she was going to the rim with a purpose. If she wasn’t getting a basket, she was getting fouled, or we were getting an offensive rebound on the follow.”
The avalanche gained momentum in the fourth quarter, with the Redmen putting up 23 points. Elgin committed eight turnovers in the frame — 15 for the second half — to contribute to the onslaught.
“When you drop 13-0 at the beginning of the game, your plays sort of go awry and you have to start doing things you probably wouldn’t do before,” Douds said. “You see that (turnovers) a lot of times when you go down 20 or so. You start to press a little bit; the confidence goes a little bit. I always tell my girls I don’t need a great pass. I just need a good pass. We were trying all these great passes and we were just turning the ball over.”
Brooklyn Mathews led the Comets with 13 points and Mikayla Hill added seven. Sam Girton grabbed eight rebounds.
“That’s a tribute to our girls’ work and being active in the zone (defense) — hands up, knowing where Mathews was. She’s a good player, she’s a good set shooter and she’s good off the dribble. We had to make sure we knew where she was at all the time,” Seybert said.
Maddie Kimmel and Adacyn Rister supported Tyrrell’s 15 points with 12 each for Bucyrus. Eight different Redmen scored in all. Kimmel had eight boards.
“We didn’t match up very well,” Douds said. “Bucyrus played hard. I know people look at their record, but they’re playing in a heck of a league. You definitely can’t go by their record this year.”
“Executing our transition, executing our offense, executing our defense — I thought we did pretty well in all three phases tonight,” Seybert said.
He also sees good things for the Comets, who were 1-22 a year ago.
“Coach Douds is doing a great job down there at Elgin,” Seybert said. “The girls are working for him, playing for him. He’s going to turn that program around, I believe.”
Bucyrus also won the junior varsity game, 32-18. Marissa Middleton had 12 points for the Redmen. Emilee Bishop led Elgin with six points.
Box score
Elgin 8 9 11 12 — 40
Bucyrus 14 14 19 23 — 70
Elgin (10-10): Shots 13-48; 3-pt. shots 5-16 (Brooklyn Mathews 2, Sam Girton, Kyra Wilcox, Gracie Isler); Free throws 9-17; Rebounds 37 (Sam Girton 8); Turnovers 27. Scoring: Brooklyn Mathews 4 3 13, Sam Girton 1 0 3, Addie Holland 2 1 5, Kyra Wilcox 1 1 4, Gracie Isler 2 1 6, Mikayla Hill 2 3 7, Taylor Schoen 1 0 2.
Bucyrus (4-17): Shots 26-59; 3-pt. shots 6-19; Free throws 12-20; Rebounds 37 (Emma Tyrrell 15); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Addison Ricker 0 1 1, Maddie Kimmel 4 4 12, Kendra Blizzard 2 0 6, Emma Tyrrell 8 4 21, Adacyn Rister 6 0 12, Marissa Middleton 1 2 4, Claire Schifer 3 0 7, Karmyn Blizzard 2 1 7.
JV: Bucyrus 32-18.