BUCYRUS — Seneca East came town seeking to avenge a loss to Bucyrus in Attica in December.
The Tigers boarded the bus headed north on Route 4, vengeance achieved.
Seneca East used a 35-point second half to pull away from the Redmen for a 61-50 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
“It was a completely different game this time,” Bucyrus coach Justin Mattix said, comparing it to his team’s 51-49 win at Seneca East. “We told the kids if we could hold them to 50, which we were on a place to do in the first half, we had a chance. We gave up 26 in the first half and 35 in the second half.”
The Tigers scored 23 points in the third quarter but Bucyrus (2-8, 2-13 N10) nearly matched them, scoring 20. However, the Redmen could not maintain the pace, which was the hope of Seneca East coach Chris Long.
“We talked exclusively (at halftime) that we have to pick up the pace and we have to play faster,” Long said. “Justin is down numbers-wise. You don’t always have to press to wear teams out. We were able to play at a pace and we were able to wear them out a little bit as well.”
Bucyrus jumped out to a 12-8 first-quarter lead. Seneca East (6-7, 4-7) Answered with an 18-12 advantage in the second period to grab a 26-24 lead at intermission. Seven different Tigers scored in the first two periods, setting the theme of the night.
The Redmen had held 6-foot-5 Tigers’ post Tyler Turek to six points in the first half, but Mattix was wary that Turek’s teammates would begin taking up the scoring slack.
“We said at halftime that they were going to hit shots,” Mattix said. “They got a couple good looks in the first half that didn’t fall for them. We said, ‘You’ve got to contest shooters.’ Two possessions in a row, we didn’t guard somebody, and he hits a 3.”
The Tigers, in fact, drilled four 3s in the third period and eight for the game. Harley Robinson-Koge scored eight of his game-high 20 points in the frame to keep Bucyrus in the game, trailing 49-44.
“We took (Harley) away (in the fourth quarter),” Long said. “But, honestly, he’s a load. When you help off on him, he’s able to find Kyle (Hamm) down low. I thought we made him take quite a few tough shots and as a coach, that’s all I can be happy about. I looked at my guys and said, ‘There’s nothing you can do about it.’”
Robinson-Koge scored just two points in the final eight minutes and Bucyrus had only six points total allowing Seneca East to increase the lead to the final 11-point spread.
Hamm seconded Robinson-Koge’s 20 with 12 points for the Redmen. Robinson-Koge grabbed eight rebounds. Dylan Goff chipped in with seven points, five in the third quarter.
“Dylan played really well tonight. He attacked the glass,” Mattix said. “I think he set us a good example in the second half, attacking the offensive boards, got an and-one and put in a couple of stick-backs. It really helped us stay in the game.”
Turek led the Tigers with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Jake Siesel added nine points. Ten different Seneca East players scored in all.
“I had some guys play really well tonight,” Long said. “They played exceptionally well as a group.”
“Harley stepped up today. He hasn’t had a game like this in a while,” Mattix said. “But we need consistency. We don’t need guys to go out and get 30 one game and three the next.”
“Hopefully, this is something we can carry on when we are playing the likes of Carey, Crawford, Upper and Mohawk,” Long said. “We can’t fall back into our older habits. We have to keep playing at that pace and make people play at our pace. We’re able to do that because we can play 10 guys.”
“We went out and got 50 tonight,” Mattix said. “We had options, we attacked the basket. Down the stretch, we didn’t hit shots. They had eight 3s and that was the big difference. The other big difference was they had 26 free throws and we had nine.”
Seneca East made it a sweep of the evening with a 55-34 win in the junior varsity game. Andrew Kalb had a game-high 15 points to lead the Tigers and Austin Snay added 10. Tod Spurlock had 11 points for Bucyrus.
Box score
Seneca East 8 18 23 12 — 61
Bucyrus 12 12 20 6 — 50
Stats
Seneca East (6-7, 4-7 N10): Shots 18-47; 3-pt shots 8-18 (Jake Hall 2, Jake Siesel 2, Andy Bauman 2, D.J. Ruffing, Chase Foos); Free throws 17-26; Rebounds 39 (Tyler Turek 14); Turnovers 8. Scoring: Jake Hall 3 0 8, Jake Siesel 3 1 9, Clint Wurm 2 4 8, Devin Daniel 2 0 4, Mykah Vogt 1 0 2, D.J. Ruffing 2 2 7, Tyler Turek 2 10 14, Andy Bauman 2 0 6, Chase Foos 1 0 3.
Bucyrus (2-13, 2-8 N10): Shots 21-56; 3-pt. shots 2-15 (Kenton Lutz, Harley Robinson-Koge); Free throws 6-9; Rebounds 32 (Harley Robinson-Koge 8); Turnovers 8. Scoring: Kenton Lutz 1 2 5, Mike Wise 1 0 2, Nic Middleton 2 0 4, Harley Robinson-Koge 9 1 20, Dylan Goff 3 1 7, Kyle Hamm 5 2 12.
JV: Seneca East 55-34.