By James Massara
UPPER SANDUSKY – The Bucyrus and Upper Sandusky girls basketball teams collided in a battle the might be expected be out of two teams involved in a four-way tie for first.
The Rams (8-2, 4-1 N10) were able to keep a share of first place as they came back from a halftime deficit to defeat the Redmen, 49-46.
With approximately 55 seconds remaining in the game, Ni’Georia Floyd connected on a 3-point basket from the left wing to pull the Redmen (6-3, 3-2 N10) back into a tie with Upper Sandusky after Bucyrus led for much of the game.
But the Redmen could not keep the Rams’ Madison McLaughlin from making her presence felt.
On the possession following Floyd’s basket, McLaughlin received a pass from Alexis Fogle and sank the bunny shot from the left block.
Alivia Lewis kept the Redmen in the game by immediately putting in a layup of her own on the opposite end with 30 seconds remaining.
With 19.1 seconds left in the game, however, it was McLaughlin who had the final say as she hit two free throws after being fouled on an offensive put-back attempt.
“I was just going crazy,” McLaughlin said. “I was just like ‘I need to make these.” I was pressuring myself.”
After a Rams timeout with the score at 48-46 in favor of the Rams, Upper Sandusky’s Abigail Fogle stole the ball from Lewis, which led to another Rams timeout with 5.3 seconds remaining.
“The plan was to get the ball to (Shaina Orewiler) or (Lewis) for a three and whoever didn’t get it was supposed to cut middle and hit the shot, and it just ended up in a turnover because that’s what we were looking for,” Bucyrus coach Taylor Whitaker said. “I want to teach the girls that that’s the plan, but you don’t always have to go with the plan if it’s not there.”
The Redmen immediately fouled McLaughlin. With a chance to make it a two-possession game, she missed her first attempt but connected on her second to give McLaughlin her 12th point of the game. McLaughlin scored 10 of her 12 points in the fourth quarter.
“She did a nice job tonight, especially down the stretch for sure,” Upper Sandusky coach Brent Fahle said.
Whitaker called a timeout with 3.4 seconds remaining to draw up the play, but the Redmen never got a shot off before the final buzzer sounded.
Both coaches said Upper Sandusky going to the full-court press defense in the second half changed the tone of the game.
Starting the second half with a 28-21 lead, the Redmen did not handle the press well, committing five turnovers in the third quarter and three of them on three consecutive possessions.
“The press never really bothers us in the first half but in the second half we start to freak out a little bit,” Whitaker said. “I told them the have to make good passes and keep having cutters middle.
“We have everybody there that need’s to be there and we have nice ball handlers. It’s a mental game with that, and that’s something that we struggle with.”
The Rams were able to make a comeback and lead 33-32 at the end of the third quarter.
The Redmen had another seven turnovers in the fourth quarter.
Fahle said going to the press was the spark his team needed.
“We didn’t bring any energy. There was no energy tonight,” Fahle said. “Quite frankly, we need to get back into school and back into a routine. I thought we looked sluggish, but we found a way to win against a good Bucyrus team and we’ll move on.”
Fahle said his team has rarely shown the press this season, but it was what was needed to get the tempo up in the Rams’ favor. He added the Rams were going to stick to the press to the end, regardless of the outcome.
The press not only caused Bucyrus turnovers, but also forced the team’s two leading first-half scorers to struggle.
Oreweiler, who finished with a team-high 14 points, and Ashtyn Simms, who finished with 10 points, combined for 22 of the Redmen’s 28 first-half points. The duo combined for just two points in the second half.
Whitaker said a positive for her team was the overall defensive effort.
She said they were going to work on playing tough defense on Abigail Fogle and Megan Hensel. Though Fogle finished with a game-high 23 points, the Redmen allowed just nine points to Hensel, which is below her nearly 17-points-per-game average.
“We were face guarding Abigail Fogle and then switching off screens and I think we did a really good job with that,” Whitaker said. “We hadn’t done it all year and only practiced it a few days and I thought we handled it really well.
In junior varsity action, the Rams defeated Bucyrus 42-18.
Eve Smith led the Rams with seven points and three other players had six points, and Taylor Patterson led Bucyrus with six points and Hayli Stoffer had five points.
Bucyrus has another first-place team on the horizon as it travels to Buckeye Central on Jan. and the Rams travel to Mohawk on the same night.
Bucyrus 12 16 4 14 — 46
Upper Sandusky 11 10 12 16 — 49
Bucyrus (6-3, 3-2 N10): Shots 19-51; 3-pt. shots 4-9 (Ni’Georia Floyd 2, Ashtyn Simms 2); Free throws 4-6; Rebounds 37; Turnovers 19. Scoring: Ni’Georia Floyd 2 0 6, Alivia Lewis 2 0 4, Izzy Burling 5 0 10, Brooklyn Spears 1 0 2, Shaina Orewiler 5 4 14, Ashtyn Simms 4 0 10.
Upper Sandusky (8-2, 4-1 N10): Shots 16-41; 3-pt shots 6-13 (Abigail Fogle 4, Megan Hensel, Alivia Oney); Free throws 11-18; Rebounds 24 (Hensel 7); Turnovers 13. Scoring: Alivia Oney 1 0 3, Alexis Fogle 1 0 2, Abigail Fogle 8 3 23, Madison McLaughlin 3 6 12, Megan Hensel 3 2 9.