NEW WASHINGTON — According to Wynford coach Mike Smith, his Royals have played just twice in the last 18 days.
A little rust may have been an issue for his team heading into its Saturday night battle at Buckeye Central.
“We just haven’t had that much time off,” Smith said. “Before Christmas we were playing pretty regularly, and I thought we were getting into a pretty good rhythm and then that kinda halted.
“I guess I need to check the schedule a little closer next year,” Smith joked. “I didn’t like that. We need to play more games.”
Rust really wasn’t an issue for his team offensively as the Royals shot 50 percent from the floor on the night in a 60-49 win over the Bucks.
With the win, the Royals improved to 4-2 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 7-3 overall. Buckeye fell to 1-6 in the conference, 4-8 overall.
Wynford made 13 of 22 shots from the floor in the first half and 23 of 46 from the floor for the game. But most of Wynford’s offense wasn’t in its half court sets.
“We got down and we fought back,” Buckeye Central coach Tom Howell said. “We battled back and didn’t give up. One thing that sticks out on me this game is not the rebounds, not their 3-point shooting in the half court set, it’s all their scoring that they get off of transition. Their transition 3s, their transition layups.”
Wynford, however, struggled defending Buckeye Central senior Tyler Sanderson, who scored 15 of his game-high 19 points in the first half.
Wynford held a 14-9 lead after one period and a 33-27 lead at the half.
Smith felt that limiting Sanderson in the second half was critical.
“I thought in the second half we took (Sanderson) out,” Smith said. “We tried to deny him the basketball a bit more and helped with him a little bit more. We worked on that all week. He’s a good penetrator, you can’t let him in the lane. We let him in the lane too much in the first half and I think in the second half we kinda got on him.”
Buckeye Central actually cut the Wynford lead to 35-32 on two Sanderson free throws and a 3 from freshman Jack Phillips.
But the Royals got three 3s in the period, two coming from senior Cainen Allen and one from sophomore Drew Johnson to increase the lead to 43-32 with 3:58 in the period.
Wynford built a 48-34 lead after three periods.
The Royals scored seven of the first nine points of the fourth period to take a 55-36 lead, the last dagger coming on a Wes Prenger 3.
Wynford got a 3 from James Rindfuss to increase the lead to 58-38 with 3:37 left.
Buckeye scored 11 points down the stretch to cut the final margin to 11.
“I thought we played pretty well offensively,” Smith said. “The slow pace that they play takes a little bit of time. I told them everybody that comes over here has the same problems. It’s been close.”
Howell thought that his team struggled on the defensive end of the floor.
“We just didn’t do a good job,” Howell said. “We didn’t get back. Give our kids credit. We stuck in there and fought. We did a good job on the boards. We just fell a little short in the scoring column.
“We have to get some more guys playing consistently on offense,” he added. “We have to find a rotation that will work for us on the offensive end. We have some things we have to work on the defensive end as well. We’ll get back to work on Monday and see what we can do next Friday.”
Phillips backed Sanderson with 11 points for BC.
“Tom is doing a great job with what he has right now,” Smith said. “They play hard, they beat you up and they try to play physical. It makes it tough on you.”
Sam McMillan led the Royals with 18 points while Prenger knocked down 12.
“Anytime you get a road win in the N10, it puts us right back in the race again,” Smith said. “All we can do is worry about ourselves. I told the kids that if we win out there’s probably a pretty good chance to find ourselves at the top or close to it.”
Buckeye Central won the junior varsity game, 35-26.
Box score
Wynford 14 19 15 12 — 60
Buckeye Central 9 18 7 15 — 49
Stats
Wynford (7-3, 4-2 N10): Shots 23-46; 3-pt. shots 10 (James Rindfuss 3, Cainen Allen 3, Weston Prenger 2, Drew Johnson, Sam McMillan); Free throws 4-6; Rebounds 24; Turnovers 6. Scoring: Drew Johnson 2 0 5, James Rindfuss 3 0 9, Weston Prenger 5 0 12, Cainen Allen 3 0 9, Grant McGuire 2 3 7, Sam McMillan 8 1 18.
Buckeye Central (4-8, 1-6 N10): Shots 20-43; 3-pt 4 (Jack Phillips 3, Tyler Sanderson); Free throws 5-11; Rebounds 23; Turnovers 12. Scoring: Drew Rose 3 0 6, Trevor Kirgis 2 0 4, Tyler Sanderson 7 4 19, Dom Dean 3 1 7, Jack Phillips 4 0 11, Manny Mullins 1 0 2.
JV: Buckeye Central 35-26.