NEW WASHINGTON — Sometimes it’s more about how you finish a game than how you start it. Such was the case here Saturday afternoon in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference girls’ contest.

Visiting Wynford (9-4, 5-3) overcame a 10-point deficit midway through the second quarter to post a 45-40 win over county rival Buckeye Central.

“We had to scramble back into it to make it 33-33 to start the fourth and it was like starting over at 0-0,” Wynford head coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon said. “They made some huge shots early, some big shots on the perimeter. We only gave up three offensive rebounds in the first half, which we wanted to focus on. They took a lot of good shots.”

Buckeye Central (4-9, 2-7) jumped on top 13-10 after one quarter. Macy Deppen had 8 of her 10 points in the first half, including a pair of threes.

“Deppen did a great job stepping away from the basket. It just took us longer to get in synch. They did a great job on Brooke Frombaugh inside. We needed to find a way to break open and force a couple of turnovers to get back in it,” Taylor-Sheldon said.

“We made our free throws to finish it.”

Wynford hit 6-of-8 free throws in the final quarter and 16-of-24 for the game.

Frombaugh still managed 12 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Caroline Sheldon also had 12 points, six rebounds, an assist and two steals.

Grace Collene led the Buckettes with 12, while Deppen and Ella Collene added 10 markers apiece. Metzger and Aleyse Siefert had four steals each as Wynford committed 14 turnovers.

A 10-0 run for Buckeye Central gave the hosts a 23-20 lead at halftime, but they were unable to maintain it.

“This game played out exactly the way the first game did. We shot the ball well in the first quarter. We made some good plays and built a 10-point lead. But they slowly worked themselves back into it,” Buckettes head coach Phil Loy said.

A three from Deppen, a Metzger steal and basket and one from Grace Collene propelled BC to a 20-10 advantage. Ally Liming hit one of her two treys off the bench to get the Lady Royals back on track.

Grace Collene drilled a three to put Buckeye on top 23-20 at halftime.

“We finished with a positive on that three at halftime. The girls played extremely hard. You look at this stat line. We shot the ball really well and we had seven turnovers. How do you lose that game?” Loy said.

“We gave up some easy stuff and they get to the line 24 times. That was the difference, and we were trying to foul down the stretch, but not that much. It’s a mirror image of the first time we played them.”

Wynford won that meeting, 43-36, on its home floor.

“I’m proud of how the girls defend. We had some communication errors. We should be switching a screen, and we leave a shooter open and that hurts us. The big thing is lately we’ve been having foul trouble. It gets you out of that rhythm of what you can run and do with experienced girls on the floor. We have got to clean that up.”

At one point, Wynford had five starters playing with at least three fouls.

“I thought our subs did a really solid job today,” Loy said. “Sometimes you’ve got to throw them in the fire quickly.”

Frombaugh put Wynford ahead 35-33 to open the fourth quarter before Sheldon’s steal and conversion pushed it to 37-33. Metzger countered for the Buckettes, but Maggie Ridge answered back.

Engler hit 3-of-4 free throw attempts down the stretch as the Lady Royals went up 42-37 with 1:02 remaining. Sheldon added a pair in the closing seconds to seal the game at 45-40.

“Ally Liming hit two huge threes for us and Jenna (Filliater) came off the bench and had some good minutes. Halfway through the season we’ve gotten a little more depth there. Everybody has to do a little bit better job executing, and sit down and defend a little better,” Taylor-Sheldon said.

“Buckeye scraps and plays so hard. We knew they were hungry for a win. We took care of the ball enough and made our free throws at the end.”

Wynford visits Upper Sandusky Tuesday while Buckeye Central hosts league leading Colonel Crawford.

Box score

Wynford                   10       10        13       12 — 45

Buckeye Central     13       10        10         7 — 40

Wynford (9-4, 5-3 N10): Shots 12-30; 3-pt. shots 5-15 (Caroline Sheldon 2, Ally Liming 2, Maradath Engler); Free throws 16-24; Rebounds 32 (Brooke Frombaugh 11); Turnovers 14. Scoring: Caroline Sheldon 3 4 12, Bri Westrick 0 1 1, Maradath Engler 1 4 7, Brook Frombaugh 4 4 12, Maggie Ridge 1 1 3, Ally Liming 2 0 6, Jenna Filliater 1 2 4.

Buckeye Central (4-9, 2-7 N10): Shots 15-41; 3-pt. shots 7-21 (Grace Collene 3, Ella Collene 2, Macy Deppen 2); Free throws 3-8; Rebounds 18 (Aleyse Siefert 4); Turnovers 7. Scoring: Aleyse Siefert 0 2 2, Grace Collene 4 1 12, Nevaeh Metzger 3 0 6, Ella Collene 4 0 10, Macy Deppen 4 0 10.

JV: Buckeye Central 33-13.