Rams able to overcome slow start

By BRIAN HEMMINGER

City editor

NEW WASHINGTON — It was a tale of two halves for the Upper Sandusky girls basketball team Friday in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference matchup against Buckeye Central.

After getting outscored by 13 points in the first half, Upper Sandusky outscored the Buckettes by 20 points in the second half to take a 40-33 victory at Buckeye Central.

“I don’t know what happened to us in the first half there,” Upper Sandusky coach Jerry Vent said. “We went into more of a trapping defense in the second half with man and zone and that forced them to play faster and got them out of rhythm. Tonight it worked out for us. That energy on defense helped us on offense a little bit.”

Buckeye Central (3-8, 0-6 N10) led 22-9 at halftime, but Upper Sandusky (6-5, 3-3 N10) came out strong in the third quarter with a 5-0 run to force a timeout. The Rams outscored the Buckettes 10-3 to cut the deficit to six points at 25-19 by the end of the quarter. 

Then, in the fourth quarter, the Rams erupted on offense. The Rams’ Madison Hart took a charge on defense, then she slipped a screen on offense and scored a wide open layup to make it a 25-21 game and force another timeout.

“They changed their defense a little bit and forced us to turn it over,” Buckeye Central coach Phil Loy said. “We only had four turnovers in the first half, but we had three times that in the second half. That’s been what’s hurting us, either not shooting it very well or turning it over and that leading to something easy.”

After the timeout, Upper Sandusky guard Grace Walton found her rhythm, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and then scoring a left-handed layup on a fast break to give Upper Sandusky its first lead of the night at 29-28 with 5:08 remaining in the game.

Walton was held to three points in the first half, but scored 13 in the second half to finish with a game-high 16.

“Grace knows and we reminded her, ‘You’re not shooting 50% on the season for no good reason. If you’re open, you’ve got to shoot ’em. If you’re getting the looks, they’ll start goin’,’” Vent said. “She’s confident. She knows she needs a good shooter and she needs to shoot those shots.”

Upper Sandusky’s Bryn Cundiff came up huge late for the Rams, making 6 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter and also hitting a clutch 3-pointer from the corner after Buckeye Central had briefly made it a one-score game with about two minutes remaining.

“That 3 Bryn made in the corner was huge,” Vent said. “I told her right before she came in, ‘Hey, you need to be ready to shoot, because they’re gonna be coming off that ball screen really hard to try to keep the ball out of Grace’s hands. She was ready, she caught it, hit it and then she knocked down some big free throws for us to extend that lead out. Good for her.”

Cundiff finished with 15 points. She scored nine in the fourth quarter while Walton had 10 in the frame. 

The first half was an entirely different story. Neither team scored for the first five minutes of the first quarter. Both teams finally traded 3-pointers, but Buckeye Central got a pair of free throws and another layup to take a 7-3 lead through the game’s first eight minutes. 

“I thought our defense was outstanding early,” Loy said. “I thought our hustle and our energy was great in that first half, which led to us creating some problems for them.”

With Buckeye Central in an aggressive man-to-man defense while trying to deny Walton from getting the ball, Upper Sandusky’s offense ground to a halt early.

“They were faceguarding Grace a little bit and basically playing man behind that faceguard,” Vent said. “We just weren’t moving very well in any of our offenses we went into. It’s almost like we got stagnant, just watching, waiting to try to get Grace the ball.”

To make matters worse, the Rams lost some of Buckeye Central’s shooters on defense as Mara McDougal connected on three open 3-pointers to help give the Buckettes a 13-point lead at the break.

“The number one thing on the scouting report was to not let them get open 3s,” Vent said. “Normally this group is really good with the scouting report, but tonight that first half was rough for me to watch. We weren’t switching our stuff correctly. We just were not good in that first half, especially defensively. I know the offense struggled, but the breakdowns defensively were driving me a little crazy.”

The Rams picked up the pace about halfway through the second quarter, eventually wearing Buckeye Central down with a steady stream of fresh substitutes while maintaining heavy pressure. 

“They were subbing in guards and pressing,” Loy said. “We had a couple girls in foul trouble and had to switch some things up. Depth can become an issue.”

Turning defense into offense in the second half was one of the biggest keys to the game for the Rams.

“That second half was the best we’ve done all season with creating a turnover and then doing something with it on the other end,” Vent said.

McDougal led the Buckettes with 11 points. Aleyse Siefert had eight points. 

There was not junior varsity game. 

Next up, Upper Sandusky hosts Carey at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

UPPER SANDUSKY (6-5, 3-3 N10): Walton 6-1-16, Cundiff 3-6-15, Hart 3-0-6, Finscally 0-2-2, Morris 0-1-1. Totals 12-34 10-13 40.

BUCKEYE CENTRAL (3-8, 0-6 N10): McDougal 3-2-11, Siefert 3-0-8, Metzger 3-0-6, Evak 2-0-5, E. Collene 1-0-2, G. Collene 0-1-1. Totals 12-36 3-5 33.

3-point goals: Walton 3, Cundiff 3, McDougal 3, Siefert 2, Evak.

Score by quarters

Upper Sandusky        3                                  6                                  10                                21                                — 40

Buckeye Central        7                                  15                                3                                  8                                  — 33

Junior varsity: none.