ATTICA (Crawford County Now) — It’s no secret that the Seneca East offense runs through Luke Mason.
But that doesn’t mean he has to score all of his team’s points. That was on display Saturday night against Bucyrus.
The Redmen did a reasonable job of limiting Mason, but the senior point guard was undeterred. He took advantage of the attention paid him by distributing to his teammates.
The other Tigers responded in spades. Seneca East hit 15 of 25 shots — only four by Mason — on the way to a 39-21 halftime lead, then cruised to a 70-41 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win.
“Mason was deferring and everybody was just making everything,” Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis said. “Kudos to their supporting cast. They didn’t miss much.”
The Tigers are not 6-1 by accident. The only blemish on the schedule is a five-point loss at Carey. But the shooting clinic even surprised Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst.
“The crazy part is I didn’t realize how well we shot it,” Langhurst said. “You’re always trying to diagnose how you want to put your players in places to succeed and I was really focused on our defense.”
Logan Price scored nine of his 11 points in the first quarter and Mason — who hit five of the six shots he attempted on the night — had 11 of his 14 in the second quarter.
Georgie Floyd had 14 of his game-high 21 points in the first half. But only three other Redmen scored a total of seven points in the first two quarters.
“We didn’t shoot well, but we got all the shots we wanted,” Hargis said. “We missed so many bunnies and we kind of laid down in the fourth.”
To Hargis’ point, Bucyrus (2-2, 1-2 N10) held its own in the third period, slightly outscoring the Tigers, 17-16. But in the last eight minutes, the Redmen hit just one of 13 shots and got out scored 16-2 to set the final score. Bucyrus got 51 shot attempts to 45 for the Tigers.
Seneca East (6-1, 3-1) put five players in double figures. Mason’s 14 led the way, Landyn Hicks had 12, Price had 11, and Ayden Perkins and Brady Bloom had 10 each. Hicks had seven rebounds. The Tigers finished the game by hitting a blistering 29 of 45 shots from the field.
“We’ve got a nice little rotation,” Langhurst said. “We’ve got a post player that can come in and play multiple positions. Ayden Perkins gives us a nice 1-2 punch with him and Brady (Bloom) up on top with Luke.”
Dylan Coppler seconded Floyd’s 21 with 10 points and 10 rebounds for Bucyrus. Only four Redmen reached the scoring column.
“Georgie’s a nice player. He has unlimited range,” Langhurst said. “We had to focus to make sure we knew where he was at. They run good sets for him, and he always finds a way to make good shots.”
Hargis said his team followed the game plan early but couldn’t stop the Seneca East scoring tsunami.
“I thought they would beat us if Mason got loose or we turned the ball over 25 times,” Hargis said. “That didn’t happen.”
In fact, they held Mason to a reasonable 14 points, seven under his league-leading average of 21.3 and committed only 11 turnovers.
“Guys are coming in and giving guys a good blow and keeping guys fresh,” Langhurst said. “You saw that tonight and they were feeling pretty good when they were on the floor.”
“We’ve got to get back on the horse Tuesday,” Hargis said. “We’ve got Mount Gilead coming in. It’s still early in the season.”
Box score
Bucyrus 13 8 17 2 — 40
Seneca East 19 20 16 16 — 71
Stats
Bucyrus (2-2, 1-2 N10): Shots 16-51; 3-pt. shots 4-16 (Georgie Floyd 3, Charlie Randall); Free throws 4-6; Rebounds 21 (Dylan Coppler 11); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Charlie Randall 3 0 7, Georgie Floyd 8 2 21, Dylan Coppler 4 2 10, Carson Witten 1 0 2.
Seneca East (6-1, 3-1 N10): Shots 29-45; 3-pt. shots 11-16 (Luke Mason 4, Ayden Perkins 2, Brady Bloom 2, Jaron Depinet 2, Logan Price); Free throws 2-5; Rebounds 34 (Landyn Hicks 7); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Keegan Boes 1 0 2, Ayden Perkins 4 0 10, Luke Mason 5 0 14, Brady Bloom 4 0 10, Logan Price 5 0 11, Matt Drown 2 0 4, Jaron Depinet 3 0 8, Landyn Hicks 5 2 12.
JV: Seneca East 70-37.